Despite the details of their romance in the bedroom kept in the dark, sharp flickers of what might have gone down in there fluttered like passing butterflies in Riola's mind; the Edensian suppressing a small shudder, and covering it's existence with a light stretch - Arms reaching upwards towards the sky before they traveled towards his eyes to rub them. Fatigue was beginning to sink into the Edensian's bones and each passing moment felt heavier and heavier. The wounded on the ship? The fact they were now being proactively hunted? It was beginning to toll on Riola, and most likely just about everyone else here as well. "What I expect is walking in and seeing you glued to the ceiling with some sort of web while La Aranea whips you with something sharp." He blurted out, his tongue moving faster than his mind could censor, before he burst into small snickers at his own comment.

"Whoa hey...I'm not gonna dye my hair. I mean...It's bad enough trying to survive as a male Edensian. I'm not gonna give that up just to hide the fact I'm one." Riola replied, shrugging a shoulder and the smile slowly fading into a childish scowl. His hands locked around a tuft of red hair, and Riola brought it towards his gaze; hot air escaping his lips as he sighed and shook his head. "Fuck, hermano. Sometimes I wish I was a human or something else. Least I could get away with just being me without being locked up, you know?" Riola shrugged once more on the topic of the Edensians triggering him, before Riola pursed his lips. "The thing that was attacking him? Owned by the Edensians. Saw that thing once myself. It's...Enough to cause PTSD." A small pause gave Riola a bit of breathing room at Mendez's last comment, before his head moved up and down in agreement with the Half-Edensian. "We're all stuck now. And we brought two more into the shitpile. I don't wanna end up burying the Felis over this. They're not cut out for this. Puta Madre, I should have said 'No' to Fikri when it came to demolitions."

=-=-=-=-=

"Figured you'd want me to look after the big man anywhoo, so it's all good. Don't get me wrong. You're priority number one, but I gotta lotta time jotted down in my life with Shal too. Didn't want you two fighting for my love and whatnot." Hyun said with a small snerk; nostril slits flaring for a bit, while the Chuzizian took hold of Ashi, and helped her into a better position when she fell back down from the jolt of angony that ripped into her. "Whoa hey, just gotta ask if you need pillows or whatever adjusted. Chellix would have gotten her by too, but Hyun knew the after effects. The girl wasn't ready for that, or worse, she'd get hooked on the stuff. And the chance of that happening would do exactly what it had done to some of her exes in the past. Get them in the 'disinterested' pile, and then chained to a post somewhere while one of her friends recorded her gunning the addict down.

"Rest as much as you need, love. And don't worry. I'm not gonna be anywhere far. I'll have the cats bring me in some coffee or whatever, and stay in here until it's time to whisk you off to the pools." Hyun said, though her tone seemed more like she was trying to assure herself more than anyone; the Chuzizian looking back towards Shaldag to make sure the man was still showing signs of life - His eyes closed, but the slim rise and fall of his mangled chest showing his was breathing. Hyun's head craned to the right, her magenta hues setting on Ashi again, and the pink woman raised a brow of flesh as Ashi looked towards her. "Once he's back on his feet, he's gonna do something stupid. I know him. That's what I'm worried about the most. He'll let himself get killed for revenge." She tried to explain, fumbling a second on her words. "The asshole...Ogrunu...Whatever, he's...Well, there's a reason I called him Shaldag. The dude'll murder everyone associated with Toka's passing."

"As for the gang shit? We're already sort of. Fucked. No one is gonna come back after that spanking. But we have money. We can always find somewhere neutral, that isn't gonna help them out." Hyun offered as a reply, before glaring at the princess and nearly giving her a sucker punch, before she restrained her own fist. "You'll live, you fucker. You got me and the big guy over there watching your back, right? We're unstoppable."

=-=-=-=-=-=

Between sputters and the imagined fire bellowing out of his mouth from scalding coffee, and the absolute paranoia that Atrix's joke was sincere, the Felis was locked into the controls and soaked in as much knowledge as he could muster when Rosalind began explaining to him the procedures for hyperspace. It had certainly been at the same time more-complex and more simple than he anticipated. He had expected quantum mechanics and careful, mathematically challenging planning, but all it seemed to be was hit the right lever and press the right button at the right time or you were as a good as dead inside your metal ship; though when the light from the stars stretches and expanded into one mixed, blended mess; Nokra lost himself at the sight of his first seat in front of a ship going FTL speeds. There was a stupefied, amazed look on his face and the youth in his eyes was in plain sight for all to see.

Atrix was finding herself more and more amused by the female Felis. The woman seemed downright terrified of everything, and didn't even shudder or flinch when the Terskix laid a finger on her. Crossing her arms, Atrix pondered on the thought of keeping her around her person, and seeing if Fikri was willing to part with one. From what she had mustered, he was the one who brought them on the ship. And it wasn't like anyone here had the strength or the desire to deal with the Terskix...Though her desires seemed to have faded the moment she had brought them up in her mind.

Atrix looked over at Rosalind and her new co-pilot, and leaned against the Pyra's seat, one arm, soon followed by several more reaching over and taking hold of the woman's armrests. "A question, Rosalind. You have. Experience with Edensians. What do they enjoy?" She barked, clicking her mandibles and leering at Nokra, who sat still and pretended he didn't exist.

As Riola stretched, Mendez rubbed his neck. It was sore, the pain only increasing with every minute passing. Bruises were no fucking joke, and this was worse than any bruise that Atrix had managed to give him. She might actually be a little pissed when she sees it. But then, Mendez himself didn't even get to see the damage and he wasn't sure he wanted to. The important thing was that he was breathing and that those metallic fingers were no longer wrapped around his neck. He'd deal with the consequences as they came. A smile did creep to his face and he snorted, “Hermano, I thought you didn't want to know that? I'm not gonna tell you how close or far away from the truth you might be.”

When the pair were far enough away from the door that their voices wouldn't carry through to the broken Ogrunu, Mendez leaned against the wall, “I don't want to do it either, but I'd rather do that than get choked out by a man three times my size. If I ever want to get choked again, I'll go to Atrix.” He laughed a bit at his own joke, smile fading when the subject turned serious. “I'm halfway there, but it's looking more and more like Mama's dream of an egalitarian Edensia is just too far away. I want to say that we'd see it in our life time, that you can take Rosalind to see your homeland while being safe yourself. But, I don't think we'll see it. Not in our lifetime anyway.” He looked down as he slid onto his haunches. They'd be approaching their destination soon, and he needed all the bit of rest he could get.

“Then let's hope it doesn't. Something tells me that man's seen a lot of shit that would cause PTSD in even the strongest. Ashi said...something about it targeting her specifically though. It leads me to believe Daowei and Edensia are working together. Going for a twofer by going after the terrorists and the princess? If that's the case, we've gotta get real good at running and hiding, and we've got to do it fast.” he sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose, “The two new felis can leave. Their faces aren't yet associated with ours. I doubt Rosalind is gonna let them stay on the ship without first making them aware of the danger they're in. As for Fikri? I think he needs this. He needs some sort of outlet that's not...ehm...what he's been doing.”

/////

Ashi blinked, processing Hyun's words. She was priority number one? The princess was certainly grateful for that, but she didn't feel like she deserved it. Shaldag had been a part of Hyun's life long before Ashi ever came into the picture; they'd been through everything together. Ashi was only plucked up recently by chance and seemed to be the sole source of their problems. Had she not shown up? Yeah, Hyun would be down a couple billion qanta, but Shaldag would be all in one piece and the gang would still be in operation. “I think at this point we're all inseparable. I would never fight Shaldag for your love, because I know you are capable of loving more than one person in different ways,” the princess said at some length, offering her girlfriend a small, pained smile. “I'm...fine,” she said with a resolute nod, “We'll be in the pools soon and this pain will only be a memory. I just hope they...I hope they can take away Shaldag's pain and keep him alive.”

Ashi followed Hyun's gaze to their friend and bit her lip. Seeing him, it was hard to keep hope. He was breathing, yes, by some miracle, but he looked like he was barely holding on. If he was going to make it, it was going to be due to sheer spite and a need to get back at those that took Toka. “Well, we could stay with the crew of the Odyssey,” Ashi said, closing her eyes, “They're going after the Edensians. If we're not with them, Shaldag will go after them himself, and that will get him killed. With Riola's knowledge of Edensian policies...this common enemy...we might be able to see something come out of it.”

She opened her eyes looking to her girlfriend, “You really think Shaldag will be okay with going somewhere neutral to hide until this all blows over? Toka was precious to him. They will have to pay for Shaldag to rest.”

/////

Rosalind's eyes were glued to the screens, shifting from one to other, thoughts that would typically be kept private now narrated out loud with a thick Pyran accent. “'An now, ye see 'ere on this map 'ow close we are? We 'ave t'leave 'yperspace in the next ten seconds or we'll miss our window,” she explained, hands deftly working around a variety of buttons and levers. The ship seemed to slow to a crawl in a matter of seconds, but her piloting prevented any sudden lurches and she pointed out the window, “There's our destination. Ah'm gonna walk ye through landing.”

As the ship was making its descent into the planet's gravitational pull, Rosalind sat back and grinned at Atrix, “Well, the one with the most experience'd be Riola, then maybe Mendez. Problem es, Riola an' I 'aven't 'ad much time t'ourselves...”

////

Fikri nodded to Magali and bowed his head. He knew he had to face it at some point, but looking at the bloodied former slave before him he knew that it was something he really did not want to do, especially considering the fact that Hyun had some sort of strong animosity against him. He followed, sighing.

At the five minute mark, Magali knocked on the door to the makeshift medbay.

"You tend to forget, hermano, that I was traveling with Atrix as well for quite some time. I may not know what's going on in there, but I can hazard an accurate guess. Atrix isn't exactly the most unpredictable girl on this metal tub si?" Reaching out and nudging the Half-breed's head upwards a little, Riola examined him for a second and let out a deep whistle. "Little purple, though you can probably get away with it. If you can talk her into keeping you around for children instead of food, you can probably convince her it was no big deal." Riola mentioned with a small shrug of his shoulders. Truth be told, Atrix wasn't hard to fool at times. Whether it was her species, or the woman herself, she just seemed to take things at face value half the time. It was nice. And sometimes frustrating, particularly when he was trying to keep a low profile with Atrix.

"I'll gamble on being faster than him, considering he's bedridden. Just gotta...Not even go near him at all unless it's absolutely necessary." Riola muttered, looking towards Mendez with his next comment and snorting. "Now I gotta ask Rosalind the same thing. If only to see her reaction. Come to think of it, I barely have the chance to even get to talk to her in private. She's busy flying the ship and all for most of the time." The Edensian scrunched up his face and then muttered a few obscenities before sighing with defeat. "We manage to dethrone the Queen. Then what though? Last thing we need is one dictatorship replacing another. I know the military would have to step in, but that's not a decent governing body forever."

"Only thing we know for certain is whatever happened, the three are lucky to just be alive, so there's that. I'm glad they didn't die. Just more people we have on our side without the worry of stabbing us in the back too. As terrible as that sounds." Riola grumbled, itching his own neck and twisting his back so it popped a few times. The possibility of both of them working? It was a scenario Riola dreaded and his face paled while he itched his head. "Well, I can dodge Edensian shit well. I know some of the codes and the hotspots for their military and government bodies. Don't know anything about Daowei. Ashi might know, so there's that but...Either way. No bueno. And shit. Felis. Never seem to get a break no matter what, huh? We better get them on their own soon if they don't want in on this, or they're dead. And Fikri? Well...If he needs it, he's gonna dive into this and get shellshocked. I make bombs. The aftermath of those...It's no good to see sometimes."

=-=-=-=-=

"Well, I fuckin' hope by now we're inseperable. If almost dying didn't work, I wouldn't see what else would. Shit, all this bonding. I could use a drink, if bonding and loving each means running and being exhausted." Hyun said with a dry, stale cackle. The Chuzizian yawned and scrutinized Ashi for a second, clicking her tongue in her cheek before nodding. "Well, if you're fine you're fine. I'm not gonna pry and see if you're lying. But yeah, for fuck's sake this place needs to be here. Now. Any longer and I'm gonna have words with the fuckin' pilot, as nice as she is. I can be polite for so long before my friends start dying. And if Shaldag croaks before he gets help, one of them better be ready to join him too."

"Not sure they're gonna want a bunch of scum like us on the ship, but if they want us, then they can have us. I haven't done ship work in forever, but having Shaldag all up on his throne of war again, and this time having a reason to kill things is something you can't deny, right?" Hyun drone, pausing and peering over when she didn't Shaldag's chest rise, scrunching up her face before the wounded man sucked in some more air and exhaled. Hand where her heart was, Hyun breathed a sigh of relief. "Surprised he didn't kill the other Edensian on the ship. I've seen that kinda look on Shal's face. It's the kind that rabid animals have."

At Ashi's question, Hyun let out a deep breath of air and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts swirl in her mind before answering. "If anything, I know if he accepts, it's because he's planning something. So I'd be more concerned if he does agree to hide right away, and we don't have to convince him."

=-=-=-=-=-=

Nokra has expected a lurch like he felt in other ships, but was rather pleasantly surprised when he wasn't on his face instead of his chair when everything slowed back into reality outside of the cockpit window. His stomach fluttered for a second when he noticed the buttons and levers, the Felis wishing he had some form of notebook or dataslate to at least help with remembering the procedures Rosalind was talking about. Her accent made a few things hard to follow, but there was always time to ask questions. For now? It was soaking in as much information as he could muster. The Felis of course was silent when Atrix and Rosalind began talking, the male Felis sticking out his tongue at the thought of Atrix...Intimate. Probably all mandibles down there like her face.

"I'll have to interrogate Riola then when I have time. Provided you don't need him first." Atrix hummed outloud, coiling her mandibles together and looking towards the incoming planet. "...I know this world. I'll have to be...Confined to certain areas. It's been that waay since the Empire tried to viral bomb this place."

=-=-=-=-=-=

The door Magali knocked on opened, revealing Hyun, who looked towards the two, and waved them in. "The asshole's still alive. For now. Tried strangling one of your redheads, so we figured you lot would be safer in here then them."

“A couple of lonely sky-side nights introduced you to the bedroom Atrix then, hermano?” Mendez said, snickering, running a hand through his red hair. His neck still hurt, but he was grateful for the chance to relax, if only for a moment. Though he was comfortable with Atrix, he knew that saying the wrong thing could tip her off at any moment and he could still end up as lunch. After all, Atrix was a widow of her own making. “Children?” Mendez laughed, shaking his head, “I can only hope. Haven't been able to convince her yet. I think I still need to prove myself, and knowing her caste, that's going to have to be done through battle. It's kind of in my best bet to stick around and hope I can be of some use to you guys.”

Mendez laced his fingers behind his head, “I mean, yeah. I think that's why she called the felis in there. They're possibly the least threatening species I've ever seen, and with their culture based around love? They're kind of perfect for this job. I just hope they can actually keep him alive. There's no saying what will happen if he dies. Hyun might possibly go insane.” He closed his eyes and sighed, “Haven't been able to spend as much time with Atrix as I would have liked either, but who knows, maybe you'll get a shot with Rosalind now that she's grooming that new felis to pilot. But who's to say that they'll stick around once we get there? So...what would you propose in lieu of regicide, amigo? Try to instill a democracy? Something tells me an all female congress would be just as bad the queen – but less easier to kill.”

“I'm glad they're on our side, that's for sure,” Mendez said, opening one eye, “But there's still the two governments going after us,” Mendez said and lowering his voice continued, “Hyun's army of misfits is dead and while the strongest part of that still lives, we've seen what can happen going against just one of those fuckers from the Edensians. You said you saw the thing yourself once, si?”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ashi couldn't help but smile and want to get up and run into Hyun's arms. Almost dying didn't have to do the trick; she was already drawn in. “Well, if it's any consolation,” Ashi said, mustering a smile through her grimace, “I like the bonding, even if it entails being electrocuted and beat up.” Ashi was uncomfortable, wanting to shift again, but knowing the consequences sat put and focused on the woman before her. She wanted to hold her, or more like, be held by her, even if she wasn't warm and comforting. There was always comfort in the cold for Ashi, it only made sense that her first (and hopefully last) girlfriend would be cold-blooded. “I think she's doing everything in her power she can. I'm just thankful that we made a good enough impression with her that she'd take us.” Then, it wasn't like they had much of a choice. The ship they were on now once belonged to Hyun, and Rosalind carried in one of her secret accounts the billions of qanta they'd manipulated from her father.

Ashi's eyes then looked to the ceiling, as if that would shield her from being just a breath away from the man that put himself in this condition to save her as he drew his last. She swallowed, breathing with relief with Hyun as his chest continued to rise. “Well, we won't be able to hide anyway. I'm a target, as are you just for owning the cash, whether it's in your possession or not. By their standards, it's yours,” Ashi said sighing. “I wish I could have met you in another life, one where I wasn't a princess.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

All of the thoughts that Rosalind normally had in the confines of her mind in muscle memory she now narrated, knowing full well he wouldn't be taking everything in. There would be plenty of time to review if they decided to stick around. If not? Well, there was no telling what would become of the two. “Ah think 'e'd be the best bet if yer lookin' for Edensian information, ah jest get us where we need t'go. Ah'll take 'im after ye get done talkin' t'im. Ah dun wanna be rushed,” the Pyra responded chuckling. More than anything she wanted some alone time with him, and not just to consummate the fact that she cared for him (though, that was hopefully in the books), she just wanted some time to simply be with him. It had been a long while since anyone was able to stir up any feelings in her, let alone those resembling love, and she was set on pursuing it, even if it meant putting her life in danger. Which was good, considering her current predicament.

When all the felis left but Nokra and Rosalind was left alone with him and Atrix, she turned the conversation to him, “Ye'll get a chance to talk to Magali while the injured are being tended to. If ye've decided to not stay, we'll take ye t'where ye need t'go. Can't promise ye'll be welcomed with welcome arms anywhere but Eyama though, giv'n your species' reputation.” “

That said, she moved the conversation back to Atrix, “If ye want, ah trust ye on the ship if ye think ye'll meet some less than pleasant people.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Magali nodded and resumed her place beside the large man, knowing the spots that needed the most attention, “Rosalind gives us...” she looked at the digital interface with the galactic time on it, “Less than five minutes. We should be bracing for landing.”

Fikri pressed his lips together, his ears pressed flat against his head. He knew none of those in here, save maybe the princess, had any good thoughts about him and he knew very little about the medical field. “Where can I help?” he asked, looking to Hyun.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

“Ladies an' gentlefolk of the Odyssey,” Rosalind's heavily accented voice came through on the speakers, “We've landed. Please get the injured ready t'leave. The sooner we can fix 'em, the better.”

The door hissed open and Rosalind immediately made way to alert the medical staff that they had two very injured people. She hoped to whatever gods could possibly exist in this skyless universe that they wouldn't ask for their identities.

The moment the doors to the airlock hissed open, the inside of Rosalind's ship was pelted and slammed with rain and wind; Amoxicilis 5's weather greeting the Pyra the same way it did with everyone else. The sky itself was a dark, gloomy near-black, with the large platform they were on connected to one of many hospitals that loomed over the planet's almost endless oceans. It was a short little hike and a set of plastic double-doors gracefully hummed open; several nurses looking towards the woman and blinking a few times before rushing to prepare themselves for incoming wounded; a small voice chiming in from the announcing systems.

Doctor Analoka to the front of Side 3, repeat, Doctor Analoka to the front, Side 3.

As the nurses prepped themselves, one of the human ones looked over towards Rosalind, "If you can, have them rushed in via your crew while we prep emergency Verdaqua for the more severe wounds."
=-=-=-=-=-=

"One night, but we both regretted it. Mostly because we were both drunk and ended up blacking out, then waking up to the whole 'Why am I inside Aranea?' happened, and I had to slide out of bed without waking her up, so she didn't kill me out of instinct." Riola replied, looking towards the hallway to the cockpit. It was bad enough telling Mendez that he was frisky with the spidery woman of his heart, and he was doing his best to lessen the blow, if Mendez was the kind of guy to get angry at such things. The moment the conversation turned, Riola jumped on it like a lion on prey. "Can tell you enough, that it's not watching you fight that's gonna be the thing. Knowing Atrix, she wants to make sure you can outlive her. She'll probably hunt you. Like. Hunt-hunt. If you live you can put a kid in her."

"They're the least threatening, but look at them. They can endure. Not a lot of people have that kind of drive and ability to survive being in shackles. Kinda wish Edensians could take a page and stand hardship like them." Riola said with a quiant chuckle, though his face grew a bit serious. He hadn't banked on the thought if any of those two didn't make, and the fact Hyun would probably crucify everyone aboard just out of anger and frustration. Riola couldn't help tbut grin and look at Mendez, and shrug his shoulders. "Well, if she lets me have like, one last action before I die, it'd probably be just to have her kill me topless. So I can at least have a decent sight before she brains me to death, or shoots me or whatever. Also assuming she killed Rosa first. Otherwise I'd just ask for like, ten minutes in the closet with Rosa before she murdered me." A small pause. "I'm such a shit, amigo, ahaha. As for the Edensians? Don't care what happens, but it's the only chance we got. I don't wanna just put puppets who agree with me on every issue. Just someone who won't kill us for being men."

"So far I've only seen one of him. If there's more, I'd probably just put a gun to my head to blow my brains out, and let Atrix collect the bounty, so you all didn't have to deal with. They brought that thing in once to clear out a safehouse. No matter what we tried using on him, it didn't work. Acid. Bullets. Laser-fire. Didn't leave him permanently injured out down. Then, he got to us and it was just...I don't wanna talk about it, Hermano." Riola drifted off, flaring his nostrils and paling. "No idea how to deal with it, especially if Viora is at its reins."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Alone with the male felis, Atrix took the pilot seat for herself and crossed her legs, spinning it from one panel to the other, and clicking her tongue and humming to her own tune, all the while the felis gawked at her with a bit of horror mixed with fascination. The bit of humming was the only noise save for various beeps and clicks, until Nokra decided to break the ice.

"You know, ma'am. You're not that scary when you act like a normal humanoid." He said with a small shrug; Atrix swiveling to face him with a raised brow.

"...I am a normal humanoid. Do you mean to think I'm a defected humanoid?"

"Humanoids have only one set of arms and legs, from what I remember."

"Does that mean if I rip your arms from their sockets, you no longer count?"

"Point taken."

Atrix huffed and cracked each set of her hands, before standing up and arching her back; carapace creaking and groaning as she strained it. "Any other questions, before I retreat and eat something, you irritating boy?"

Nokra snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, fucking sure. How does Mendez even handle dealing with sleeping with you, you fucking creeper." Atrix responded by holding up an arm and forming a circle with her fingers, before imitating driving all 7 other fists through the hole; Nokra snorting coffee out of his nose while she left.Atrix snickered and moved to exit the cockpit, waving a hand. "Your mating partner seems to like me. I could probably show her a more loving time than you could with all of these hands, too."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hyun sighed and rubbed her temples. It was back to the position of being a boss once more. Huffing and trying to think of things for the Felis to do, Hyun pushed herself from Ashi's bed and scratched herself, though when Rosalind's voice popped up that they had arrived, something rather critical had popped up. Trying to move the mountain of muscle and iron that was Shaldag on a stretcher. "If you think you can manage it, I need help moving Shaldag into the damn place. Don't fuckin' pop your back trying to be macho if you can't, either." Hyun growled, moving over towards one side of the stretcher and looking down towards Shaldag, who seemed to be asleep. Once more peeking to make sure he was still breathing, Hyun-chu waited for Fikri to see if he'd move to the other side.

"Magali, I guess you can help Ashi, if she'll be able to at least hop. If not we can come back for you, love." She said, nodding and looking towards the Daoweian. They couldn't have sent in someone stronger. The Terskixian could have at least managed to heave the Orgrunu. Or Assisted better than these two weaklings. "Fuck's sake, move your ass, Fikri. My friend dies, and I'm nailing each of you to the side of this damn ship, and driving it into the fucking ocean.

Rosalind squinted, trying to see past the rain that was pelting her in the face as she stepped forward, grateful that the building provided at least a little bit of shelter from the rain. The peace of space was nowhere to be found on this planet of healing. Instead the wind hounded them with the sort of tenacity that seemed only to speak of bad omens. The word “doctor,” however, brought Rosalind back to where she needed to be, with her feet on the ground and in front of those angelic beings. “There's two, ye'll be wantin' t'focus on the man first; 'e took the brunt of it. The lass's stable. Ah believe m'crew is already on et,” the woman said.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mendez snorted. Most of the guys he knew hated finding out that one of their friends slept with their current squeeze, but Mendez was never the type. As far as he was concerned, everyone brought with them their own baggage, and if some that baggage was shared with one of his friends it didn't matter much. The past was the past. “Well, it's good that you got it out of there alive, amigo. There's been more than one instance where I didn't know if I was gonna make.” He blinked, shaking his head, “Survive. Being hunted. Hoo boy. What determines how long that lasts before she lets me?” He couldn't help but laugh. What an absurd situation that he'd found himself in. A partner that he knows is liable at any moment to rend his life from his body, and here he was yearning for just one I love you.

“Well. Magali maybe, but Nokra was forced to fight. Not love,” Mendez said, “He only looks like he's the least threatening. Magali took a special kind of endurance.” He shook his head before standing up straight to massage his neck, “So long as I get to see it too, amigo. Then, I'd prefer one last session with Atrix. See if maybe I can get her to finish the job instead. That way it'd at least be a little bit more prepared for. It's probably better to try than just wait around and get caught. Even if Atrix and I wanted to leave, we've been seen with you. Looks like I'm fighting for half my homelands regardless of never actually seeing it.” Mendez was a liminal being, he realized. Not quite completely human, but not complete Edensian either. He had reason to fight for Edensia, sure, but that reason was twice removed. Survival was the key, but now the two were tied. It seemed fate wanted him to carry out his mother's fight. “Well, here's to hoping we live long enough to find out, si?”

Mendez shuddered, not wanting to let himself imagine what the three went through. And they'd lived. That was the most amazing part of it, if this creature was as bad as Riola was saying. He saw many of his friends die by that thing's hands, and all three Shaldag, the Princess, Hyun...they lived. “So you don't think the grenade killed it then?”

With the ship now open and everyone attempting to figure out how to transport the injured Mendez looked to Riola, “I know we can't help with Shaldag because we're ah...related in some sick way...to the people that attacked him, but once they transport him, we could help with the princess.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fikri was at unease looking at the bulk of man that was meant for him to carry and shook his head. He wanted to try, for Shaldag's sake, but no amount of adrenaline was going to make him strong enough to bear the half-metal man's weight. “I'm not strong enough, not with only two of us --” Fikri started, debating with himself if he should try anyway if only to appease Hyun.

Magali gulped, “Y-you asked for the other felis...I...I didn't ask. I'll go ask Atrix now.” With that, the pale felis bounded away into the cockpit--

--Just in time to catch Atrix's last statement, turning red. She shook her head, reminding herself why she was in there, “Atrix, you're requested to help with the injured's transport.. Of course, there's ah...room for you to reject, but the Edensians were attacked by him, and Fikri says he isn't strong enough. You're the strongest we have...please.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=

Ashi took a deep breath and watched as Magali scampered away, “She's not going to be able to carry me. Daoweians are taller than felis by nature; we weigh more. I can endure a bit longer while we get Shaldag to the pools. I'm stable – he isn't. And Fikri...thank you, for admitting that. If he was dropped and that was what it took to kill him...Well, I would have killed you myself.”

Fikri gulped, “Ehm...yeah, no problem.”

While the rest of the nurses finished preparing stretchers and bags of saline and other chemicals; one of the doors to the hospital opened up; a thin, green colored woman stepping out and clicking several things on her datapad; before her sights were set on the Pyra. The woman moved over towards Rosalind; where her lack of features and wispy, plasma-coated skin looked like living fire. The same species as Toka. Coughing and then extending her hand the woman cocked her head to the side. "Analoka. Bring me up to speed. Injured, yes yes. Species? Focus on the male first." Her sentences were jumbled and hurried, as if she was trying to get the information stored in her head while she waited for the injured. "I assume the matter of payment and funding will be discussed when they are no longer critical."

==-=-==-==-==

"I mean, her people don't really. Have a notion of love in their bones. She's probably still adjusting to the whole, not dating a Terskixian. If anything, she might take it easy on you." Riola said, at a loss for words for consoling his fellow Edensian. Sucking his teeth, Riola snapped his fingers and offered him the only thing he could think of for winning Atrix's favor. "Turn the tables on her. Try hunting her down instead? I feel like she'd enjoy a guy willing to take charge, even if he knows she'd probably break him in half. It's hard to say. Important thing is she isn't eating your guts in front of everyone. Can always try and get her to say 'I love you' in private too." Riola let out a deep exhale, and grinned. "There's always just...You know. Reading up on her kind too. If anything you can probably find something to throw her off guard."

Shivered at every possibility that Riola could think that she might have past experiences with. There was a beauty in Magali that Riola had definitely noticed, and it was that kind of innocence and grace that led to men and women into doing rather horrid things to try and claim that spark in their debauchery. Shivering the Edensiand gave Mendez a slow nod, before patting himself and groaning, forgetting he was out of cigarettes. "Atrix has at least a buy into surviving. She can just turn sides. Bounty Hunter after all." Riola said, shrugging her shoulder and then grinning. "Hell, she could just ask for you as a slave and keep you if it means you both get to leave if you want. I'm not gonna keep you here." Reaching over and patting his shoulder, Riola raised his brows and offered Mendez a small smile. "Half-Edensian is still Edensian, hermano. And my home is still yours. I want you to be able to see Edensia. It's beautiful. Worth fighting for, at least in my eyes. We're gonna live long enough to win too. Si, si. I'll make sure of it. Your little future aranea-kids can run freely there, and torment the rest of us."
"Grenade? Probably managed to at least keep it down long enough to escape. Though it took Shaldag keeping it near him to do it. Not the best way to win a fight and come out alive, but I guess being more machine than meat helped a lot. " Riola uttered, itching the back of his head and looking towards the rainy exterior, Riola let out a whistle and then flared his nostrils. "Can help her, yeah. Wish we could do something about Shaldag though. Sure rain and wind hitting organs and live, exposed internal cybernetics isn't gonna feel bueno."

==-==-==-==-==

Hyun did her best to try and heave the Orgrunu with Fikri, though it seemed futile for now. The man, even with chunks of him missing was simply too massive and letting out a litany of curses, Hyun did her best to hold her anger until Magali left, before pulling out her shotgun and firing it at the wall, the gun clicking empty, to which the Chuzizian hurled it against the side of the room as well. Shaldag had carried both of them. And she wasn't able to do anything for him in return? She felt.

Weak.

Weak like the stupid Felis in front of her, and with balefire in her eyes and sulfur in her tone, Hyun glowered at Fikri - noseslits flared before she tried to lift him again, though she had to set him back down; Shaldag coughing and sputtering. "If you're not gonna help me then fuck off, I can drag him or something. Fucking useless race of cats. Fucking slave stock. Move my fucking girlfriend then. Better her killing you than me. I'd take my sweet time with your ass."

=-=-=-=-=-=

Nokra looked at Atrix with a powerful glare that would have peeled the paint off of the room behind him. He opened his mouth but soon closed it when he noticed Magali's appearance, the male felis burrowing his head in his shirt and wishing Atrix and himself just dissolved into nothingness right then and there. "If you need me, just holler or something as well." Was all he managed to pipe up and say, all the while Atrix crossed her arms and sneered at Magali with her request.

It took a moment for Atrix to sigh in response, before reaching over and scratching the Felis' ears a few times. "If you need me, then I'll help. Just be prepared for weapons to be aimed on me. I told Rosalind that my kind isn't particularly welcomed here, but if the situation is desperate enough, then I'll do it." She said, draping the scratching hand down to her shoulder, and wrapping an arm around her. "Lead the way. Love." She said, Nokra glaring at the Terskix as she looked back and clicked her mandibles, before smiling innocently at him.

Once they were out of sight, Nokra kicked the pilot's chair as hard as he could.

"Fucking bitch."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Atrix was quick to just help usher Shaldag out into the rain, the Terskix managing to heft the Ogrunu in all of her arms; though the woman seemed to have to brace herself, and the walk with him was slow and ended in a few near-falls. "Too much metal in this one. It ruins meat." She mentioned offhandedly, finally getting Shaldag out through the doorway and turning to the other three. "Help the Daoweian. I have this one. Though I'll be a bit slower when it comes to the rain, so I don't slip and fall with him."

Rosalind's eyes were immediately on the tall, thin woman, needing to look up to see into her eyes. Rosalind cleared her throat, “The male is Ogrunu, the female is Daoweian. Fundin' won't be a problem if ye can keep 'em alive. More if they come back in good condition.” She scratched the back of her head as she cast a glance to the open door, her red hair flying wildly as rain pelted her face. She hoped the rain wouldn't cause the wounds to bleed more profusely. Though she hadn't seen either of the wounded since take off, she feared the worst and couldn't even begin to imagine how much blood was lost between the two of them.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mendez sighed looking down. Of course he managed to fall for a woman who couldn't love him back, who couldn't feel love. It was just his luck. He'd suspected, but hearing it out of someone else's mouth seemed to cement it there for him. At least the sex was good. There was that. That, and he had a powerful ally should things go sour. “I'm...unsure of how she would take that, hermano. She might take offense and then I will die. But then, a punch to the face earned me a few more days of life, so I guess it's worth a shot.” He shrugged and clapped his hands together, trying to make it seem like he cared about the topic a little less than he did.

“Yeah,” Mendez muttered, “I suppose you're right about that. She will probably outlive me by a long time, but if I can convince her to like me, I'll end up surviving other people, if nothing else.” He laughed, making light of the fact that if he ever died of unnatural causes, it at least wouldn't be from anyone other than Atrix. If he was killed? There would be hell to pay on their part. “I'm not going anywhere unless she does, hermano. But there's money to be had here, what with Hyun and Rosa's deal and all. They were loaded between the two of them, and like it or not, they were both being hunted by the same people. Riola by the Edensians, Ashi by the Daoweians, and the two were likely forging an alliance which doesn't bode well for any of us. Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if Atrix tries to play both sides.” He shuddered, an image of Clyde popping into his mind based on Riola and Ashi's description of the creature. That thing by itself was enough to elicit fear, but two sets of bounty hunters as well? They might as well just gut themselves now. “As far as being Edensian goes? You can tell them that. Not that it matters much for either of us in their eyes, given the fact that we're men.” He shook his head, sighing. At one point, seeing Edensia had been his greatest dream, everything he'd ever wanted. Edensia sounded biblical. A garden of perpetual joy, beauty falling at every corner. That dream fell with his parents, later his grandparents. He'd inherited the gift of long life from his mother, but knowing that they died of old age didn't make matters any easier. He'd lost any place to call home, and Edensia was not going to welcome him with welcome arms.

The humans were scattered from one end of the galaxy to the other.

His home simply didn't exist. “Yeah, thank fuck for that. If he was straight organic? I doubt we would have seen him come through those doors. I do too. Fikri isn't the strongest of men I've seen, and Magali won't be of much help in that department...Ugh. If only we could find a way to stop his ears and block his vision.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fikri shook his head, taking her dagger-words with grains of salt. She's stressed, he told himself, bowing his head, ears pressed flat. “It's not that I don't want to help,” he explained, the pinnacle of patience for one who was on the verge of potentially losing her best friend, “It's that if my muscles give out and we drop him, that's not exactly the best for a man in his condition. Look at him, he can't take any more bumps and bruises. I'll... I'll help with Ashi.” The felis's voice shook, but he moved to the princess with resolve, glancing at Hyun and hoping her attention would be back on Shaldag, picked Ashi up. She grimaced, but placed her good arm around the back of Fikri's neck to aid him.

“I'm in no condition to kill you, Fikri, don't worry,” Ashi said, mustering a smile. Fikri, under other circumstances, would have returned it. Now, he just nodded and prayed that Atrix would accept Magali's request.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Magali stood there with wide eyes and a drooped tail, not sure of how Atrix was going to take her request. She'd dealt with female terskix before, somehow avoiding the males. Those were some of the species she was always drugged the hardest for, and while she could rarely remember what happened most of the time, she'd come out with scars – one in the curved shape of teeth on her side. It was a miracle she survived, she thought. But she closed her eyes with one of the hands reaching out to scratch behind her ears and even pressed into it as if operating on instinct. “Th-the situation is...situation is desperate enough,” Magali stammered, lacing and unlacing her hands and looking up to Atrix with pleading eyes, “The Ogrunu tried to get at Mendez after hearing his accent, so the Edensians can't help. Fikri isn't strong enough so he's helping with the princess. You're the strongest I could think of...”

She gulped, daring for a moment to look towards Nokra, shooting him a half apologetic look – not being able to stop and talk to him - and nodded, “They're this way. I'll explain to them that you're helping carry him...If I work as a messenger, that will make it easier, right?” Magali already turned to lead the way, all but running to the medbay. “She said yes!” she said happily, “It's raining very hard out there...I can try to block it off with a tarp or something?”

“There's a couple in the storage,” Fikri said simply, casting a look to the ogrunu, “But there isn't time. If you can just...I don't fuckin' know, hold a blanket up in front of him or something? Try to block the wind as best as you can?”

“Got it,” Magali said, nodding. With Atrix in to help with the burden, they could make it in. It would be hard, but they had to make it.

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Rosalind's search for eyes on the doctor would be in vain; the woman's head nearly featureless, if only for the plume of glowing emerald plasma that seemed to be held in place with gravity. Gloved hands tapped relentlessly on a datapad and the woman grunted and cocked her head to the side. "Curious though. We got reports of a Daoweian criminal possibly coming by. Well regardless, her legality on another planet is not my concern. I treat the injured." She said huffing and rolling her mass from one hip to the other. "So long as the funding is not an issue, I'll make sure they're back to walking on their feet in hours. Maybe a day depending on the severity." Analoka chimed with a small chuckle.

Day One on the job was proving to be quite interesting.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Riola was quiet as Mendez replied to his notions; the carefree demeanor was something Riola hadn't expected when it came to the topic of the one Mendez was fancying. It seemed a bit fake, shallow even but the Edensian couldn't do much, nor did he wanna stir the pot by calling the Halfbreed out on it. Inhaling the air and letting it swirl around in his lungs, Riola then exhaled and finally broke the silence. "Well hey, 50/50 odds you get something you really want, or you get spared dealing with a life on the run. I'd take it and go for it, hermano. But that's just me." Fidgeting with his fingers, Riola cursed a bit in Edensian. "Remind me to fucking buy some smokes out there when I can. I'm getting nicotine-shakes."

"No shame in hiding behind her while she murders everything in her path though. How do you think I lived with her, amigo? I can fight, but I'm sure as hell not a crackshot, or as durable as her. I just lob grenades and hope for the best." Riola said with a bit of a dry, stale laugh. "That's a horrific thought honestly. Not to be that guy, but if she ends up playing both sides, and one of them finds out, there'd be hell to pay. Not to threaten your spider, but if she's intent on betraying us at some point, I'd rather you both part ways. Don't wanna have to try and double-tap you while you sleep." It was grave tidings, and Riola would never wish it to come to that. If only because he knew he could fight one or the other. But Mendez and Atrix? He might as well just blow his own brains out. "That kind of attitude is how men ended up in this situation in the first place. Apathy and shrugging it off led to us being exterminated. Cut it out." Riola snapped, his eyes incensed with anger as he glowered at Mendez. "Giving up being able to visit the homeworld. I've seen people in my line of work get killed by one another over that kinda talk."

"If that boy was organic, we'd be feeding him to Atrix by now. The day I see something live point-blank with a grenade is the day I walk up to Nokra and tell him I'm gonna drag his little Felis squeeze into bed with me and Rosalind." Riola snorted, crossing his arms and giving Mendez a wry look; eyebrows waggling while he tapped his foot as he waited for the wounded to eventually come by. "I mean, we can hope he's passed out. Not the best thing to say, but if he's asleep we can help out before he wakes back up and they dip him in...Puta madre, what's it called? Verdaqua, that's the name of the pool liquid."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hyun snarled at the Felis' response and opened and closed her hand like a mouth talking, mimicking the Felis and fighting to contain every ounce of rage that was spewing out of her mouth. "Meh meh meh, meh meh. I'm weak and can't lift a fucking man. If you're worried about dropping people here's a fucking tip. Don't." The Chuzizian moved over to her hurled weapon and tucked it back into her coat while Fikri moved Ashi, the magenta-colored woman eyeing Fikri and then scanning Ashi for any signs of more discomfort than she really needed to feel.

Now it was a matter of getting Shaldag out of the room. And while she half-hoped the Terskixian was going to be helping, she knew enough about them to know how much they gave a damn about the wounded. And if there was so much as a single bite taken out of Shaldag, Atrix was going to have to remove some severed arms out of her ass when Hyun was done with her. Shaldag didn't deserve half of the shit he had gone through, and she knew it. Resting a hand on his forehead, Hyun waited for Atrix and when she came, moved backwards to let her handle the man.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Fikri is right. There's no time. I can shield the Ogrunu as best as I can with myself, but ultimately, if he hasn't died now a little wind and some rain isn't going to leave him at death's door." Atrix replied towards the two Felis, the Terskix growling as she held the weight of the larger man and stood there while they discussed everything. Each second they lingered trying to figure out how to minimize the damage the weather might do was another second she'd end up putting him on a butcher's hook for later consumption. The lowermost set of hands on Atrix moved from Shaldag and positioned themselves on her waist, before scooching down and bending her legs so Magali could at least attempt to cover his vitals with a blanket like they had wanted.

Everything seemed to be in order, so the Terskix began the arduous task of carrying the Ogrunu towards their destination (A small kiss blown towards Mendez when she inevitably passed them.) and when the Terskix reached the airlock, began to take her time with each step onto the wet ground - Eyes squinting and mandibles locked against her face when the wind and the rain began to pound down on her. It wasn't the warm, light rains that were on her homeworld every now and then. This was a different animal itself, and already Atrix was ready to burrow back into the ship when she could.

It was when she arrived at open doors that the hospital staff stopped for a second; turrets coming to life and painting the Terskix red with targeting laser and forcing Atrix to stand still once she had arrived inside, before huffing and looking to Rosalind. "Would you tell them to not murder me while I assist in handling the Ogrunu? Being shot helping wounded is not how I wish to die."

Rosalind stared in awe at the woman's face. There were no eyes, so looking for a place to focus on while speaking was awkward to say the least. This was the second time she'd laid eyes on this species. There was one other, very recently. That girl that went straight to Shaldag. What was her name? “We 'ave the fundin' t'keep your lips tight. We jes' need some healin'.” Rosalind was all business, her face rarely betraying an emotion as to what lay on her outer exterior. The cockpit was where she felt the most comfortable, and having just come from the wind and the rain now standing in front of this powerful presence, she was a bit out of her element. She felt naked. “Count on the day, we weren't sure ef we were gonna make it.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mendez could see that Riola wasn't buying something that he was saying, but then, Mendez didn't buy it himself. The idea worried him. Just once he wanted to hear those three little words. Just once he wanted to feel like what they had was something beyond the amazing sex they had in the bedroom. It was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. He'd been in relationships before, relationships where he was in the position Atrix was, in the position where love had was questionable. He knew how she felt then. He told himself that he would never become her. Now he knew exactly how she'd felt. Since, they'd gone their own separate ways, but separate ways with Atrix could possibly mean death. He reached into his packet and produced a pack of cigarettes, pulling one out and handing it to Riola, “Alright, but I've got you in the mean time. I doubt they'll be selling anything like cigarettes on a planet that encourages health.”

“I think that as long as you're proving of worth, she won't mind that she's playing the part of the shield. Shit, she's warrior caste, she probably understands tactics and different roles, and she's damn good at playing hers,” Mendez said. Honestly, it would be better to look at it that way. If she plays her role well, it made sense that she should expect the same from those close to her. “If you want me to be truthful, I hope she chooses to stay with you. She hasn't said anything one way or the other, so it's hard to say what she'll want. I'm just saying that I'll follow her regardless. But, I will push to stay. If only because one day I'd like to visit Edensia without a fear of being lynched for being male or...or the product of a straight, interspecies relationship – and one currently going through with another. It's just... an issue that feels so personal and so distant at the same time, does that make sense?” He felt like the liminal character, the rope in a game of tug-of-war. He had no identity that had ever claimed him, so why should he claim one? But then, maybe this was his chance. He forever walked in shades of gray. There was no black and white. “Why fly a banner that's never claimed me? I'd rather walk under someone whose had my back, and so far, as fucked as it sounds, that's Atrix.”

“Well, he lived regardless, so it's probably a good thing he was made half of metal, however shitty the story behind all the metal was,” Mendez said with a sigh, but it turned into a chuckle at the thought of the three of them attempting to make something work, “If you think Rosalind, or Nokra for that matter, would go for it, you're welcome to try, but I'm gonna stick with the weird shit I already experience,” Mendez said laughing. “Verdaqua? Like, hot water? Yeah, let's just hope we can because he's metal.”

=-=-=-=-=-=

Fikri looked down, clenching his jaw. His fists would have been clenched too, but at the moment his arms were around the princess and he needed to remain as stable as he possibly could. There were so many things he wanted to say, so many things he couldn't. Like the fact that “don't”ing was exactly what he was doing, he wasn't exacerbating the problem. Instead, he was helping with another. But the pink woman had something against he and the rest of the freed slaves and didn't see it. The princess, on the other hand, was trying to adjust to being held. Her body screamed in discomfort, but she knew that was no fault of the felis. She said nothing, biting back heavy breaths, praying that the walk to the pools wouldn't be far.

Magali shook her head, “You're right, and a blanket's fabric would just leave pieces in already torn skin. We're just going to have to move quickly.” She watched as both the princess and Shaldag were lifted and lead the way out the door. (Mendez's heart soared with the small hint of affection and he was beaming as he followed) They travelled across the bridge through the wind and rain and finally to the room that Rosalind and a star woman already were. She raised her hands and Rosalind immediately placed herself between the guns and Atrix. “She's with us. None of the rest of us were strong enough t'move 'im. 'E's too 'eavy. Please, once he's set in the pools she can go back t'the ship.”

Mendez raised his hand from the tail end of the group, “And I'll go with her.”

Analoka was used to the rather obvious nature of Rosalind's gaze towards her. Her kind was a rare occurance to just about everyone, and while the looks and the occasional prods were something she had grown accustomed to, Analoka couldn't help but feel amused each time that it happened. Her furious fingers began to slow down, and setting the datapad onto her belt, the plasma-coated woman shrugged her shoulders at the Pyra, before moving over and circling her, giving her a rapid once-over as well. "You won't have to worry about loose lips. At least from me. I don't wanna get involved in whatever is going on, nor do I care which side is in the right. Treating people is what I do. No need for bribery." Patting Rosalind on the shoulder, Analoka nodded and flaired her pony-tail of plasma. "You're here now. So you've definitely made it. Average rate for recovery on critical wounds here is 93 percent, barring some rare complications. But none of them afflict the Ogrunu. Or your Daoweian associate."

=-=-=-=- INSIDE -=-=-=-=

The silence and venomous glares that Atrix was getting made her sigh, and raising her lowermost hands, nodding towards Rosalind and taking a few steps to have her carapace at least shield a portion of the Felis, before the turrets were lowered and several nurses rushed in to assist the Terskix, albeit with some hesitation while they tried to place him on one of the larger stretchers. Once Shaldag was placed properly, and seemed to be secure for movement, Atrix looked down at scarlet-covered hands and then felt out of place in such a sterile, clean environment. "He is set down and comfortable. For someone on the door to death. Unless I'm not wanted here or now allowed, I would appreciate being able to leave." Atrix hummed, clicking her mandibles a few times, only for Analoka to move to her and scan her up and down, then wave her hand nonchalantly.

"The Terskixian is free to stay here, so long as she surrenders her arms, and provides your Imperial Clearances." Analoka chimed, more towards the group than towards Atrix herself; the doctor getting concerned glances from her cohorts before she turned to face then and moved towards Shaldag. "Enough staring. Verdaqua pool seven, next to recuperation rooms 1132 and 1133. This work will also fall under nondisclosure acts, and you will all be terminated if you breathe a word of who they are." She barked, the Star Woman's hands on her hips while she began barking orders towards the rest of her staff. Once the Ogrunu was sent off on his way, Analoka began to move towards the rest of the group, this time intent on assisting herself once Ashi was brought in - the Star Woman moving over towards her and cocking her head, before waggling her fingers.

"Doctor Analoka. I'll be in charge of you and your Ogrunu friend."

“That's just as well,” Rosalind said nodding, “We don't want to be involved either, an' we're wantin' na bring in as few as possible.” She'd come to the conclusion that she liked the woman. Blunt and to the point; she didn't waste time. Formalities were not Rosalind's strong suit, and she appreciated others bearing that sentiment. The touch on the shoulder took her by surprise, and she felt herself unwillingly jerking up. Something about the woman's appearance made her think she would hurt anyone she touched, yet she operated a dataslate without its melting. There was no reason why she shouldn't be able to. She wondered if the plasma had the possibility of ever hurting anyone, just as her fire did, and if it was simply a matter of mental control. Then, biology and the inner-workings of obscure alien species were not her forte. Machines were. “All I can say, doc, es that I'm thankful you're 'ere.”

=-=-=INSIDE=-=-=

Magali watched as Shaldag's groaning form was transferred from the arms of the Terskix to a stretcher by people who would be taking care of him. He was going to make it, and Atrix wasn't going to be shot today. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing she was still trying to decide, but Atrix seemed to like her and she was associated with the felis that had saved her and Nokra from the bonds of slavery. He now had the chance to be something other than a fighter for others' amusement, and, she supposed the same could be said for her and her dreams. But, what did those consist of? She'd never given it thought, never entertained that hope. She stood there, lost on what to do or say. Imperial Clearances? Those sounded like things Master needed to deal with when taking she and Nokra anywhere off of Hazoo. Then, they were expected to stay quiet and hidden, but then, when one is bound the latter isn't up to them. She was placed in the precarious position of being one unknown by the larger galactic government, a non-person as far as identifications went. She and Nokra both were in this position.

Rosalind's lips pressed into a thin line, “Ah'm not sure we can do that. Ye see, the felis, excepting the brunette male dun' 'ave identifications. They're recently freed slaves and'll get their identifications on a later date. Atrix's likely t'not 'ave 'ers either as she's no longer directly workin' with the Empire.” The news should be good for them, as a Terskix without the Empire was significantly less of a threat. Still dangerous, but easily isolated and taken down without the threat of others at her back. “Et's up to you, Atrix. D'ye 'ave yer paperwork?”

Fikri pat his pockets, thankful that he'd kept his identification on him essentially since he got it. Pulling out the small card just in case it was asked of him. He didn't know how the entire thing would work with legitimate wanted criminals in their midst, and if this Dr. Analoka did take note of the names of all of those on board she could easily report them. If Ashi's being a bonafied princess wasn't enough, then Riola's being a bonafied terrorist, Mendez being a missing person, and Atrix's just existing might. He hoped Atrix would continue on the trend of well-behaved. They might waive any predispositions to betrayal. He watched as the medical personnel rushed to get the two injured in their respective pools, feeling his id in his fingers, slick against the tips. It was, after all, only a couple of galactic years old, and he hadn't needed to use it much. Still, the likeness of the felis was from a very different time. The felis on the card was smiling broadly, even after being told smiling for pictures was an old Earthen tradition. But, he couldn't contain himself. His getting his identification meant that he was no longer a non-person to the state and that he was a free man. That day was full of hope for a promising future, even if it was just a modest one working with Rosalind.

Ashi watched with wide eyes as the Star Woman approached her with waggling fingers. She couldn't help but think of Toka, yet the two of them couldn't be more different, cemented in image only by their unique looking species. The peculiar head cock sent a shiver down Ashi's spine, and for a moment, she wondered if she was recognized. Then she remembered her condition. She was covered in blood, and she was sure her normal pearly whites were now that dull crimson to brown of old blood as she hadn't had a chance to get cleaned. Coupled with the fact that by now it was common knowledge that she was dead, the chances of her actually recognizing the princess was lessened. Ashi cleared her throat, nodding, “Thank you. If...if you are the one in charge, please give first priority to Shal. But I'm sure you knew that already, huh?” Ashi mustered a smile, but it came out warped through a grimace. “Thank you for taking us in on such short notice...”

"Don't be thankful. Another doctor would be doing the same. Neutrality is a valued commodity here, no matter who they are and it's why this hospital has been so successful. Barring certain other species from being a minor harassment." Analoka hummed, the woman glowing a bit brighter for a second before she fizzled back into a dull green glow. "However, our only real worry when it comes to your anonymity and safety is when you leave. The moment your ship isn't touching any part of this facility, you're free game to anyone who would be hunting you down. I just hope you lot were not followed or there's going to be ships hovering and waiting for you."

//////

Riola looked around in the hospital and itched the back of his head when he realized how sterile the place looked, his dirty clothes and dingy fingernails seemingly breathing infection into everything he touched. At least he wasn't hands-on with the Orgunu. With all the grime he had on his body he would have added an infection or two. Though he had helped set one of the leg bones in the princess; Riola flaring his nostrils in thought. If that chica goes septic it might have been me. Best not to tell Hyun or anything. A set of nurses walking by caught his eyes for a second and he watched them whisper to each other about his friends before he shrugged them off, and sniffled a little. They could afford a break here. Maybe he could catch a bit of time with Rosalind now that the ship was docked, the wounded were being treated, and Hyun wasn't being a voracious cunt towards everyone.

Atrix looked towards the rest of the group for a moment and sucked her teeth, before using one of her lower limbs to bring out a small, circular slate the woman clicked, a list of data pouring down like a cascade in the air in the jagged, primitive looking text of the Terskixian, the bounty hunter repeated what was on the slate for the rest of medical staff. "Atrix Agryodes. Warrior Caste, should I return to service. Civilian number 132.232.33.66. Honored Year of Servitude to the Matriachy." It was more than a mouthful of words, and the Terskix seemed to repeat it almost instinctively, before the woman finally slid away her dataslate when the others seemed to be more than content. Analoka, listening to the tirade from Atrix crossed her arms and nodded towards Rosalind. "Freed laborers, yes. No identification of course. Felis unfortunately don't have much along those lines when they are given a chance at freedom. If anything, I could probably provide the couple with a means to at least get a foot in the door, and have identification. At least from the hospital."

One of the aides looking at and examining Fikri's identication papers gave him a warm smile, the human doing his best to treat the man with as much enthusiasm and warmth as he could muster, and shrugging his shoulders at the Felis. "You lot look awful, if you don't mind me saying. There's a cafeteria and a place for guests to lounge and clean themselves up, if you need it."

//////

"Technically I am in charge. There's a lot to do for the Ogrunu. The preparation team will be busy handling him. While I'm affluent in dealing with wounds, I'm not the most adept at dealing with cybernetic tech that has been..." Analoka gave Ashi a polite cough and tapped her foot. "...Jury-rigged. Those cybernetics would most likely have killed him if whatever happened to him to leave him critical did not. Those intravenous injectors weren't cleaned in years; pumping infection into his body along with whatever stims were flowing through him." A turn down the the left of the hallway and both Shaldag, Hyun-chu and some of the crew moved to their respective room; leaving Analoka with Ashi for a moment.

"It's my job. I have been bored lately, with everyone currently being transferred to other physicians. Not a lot of people wish to have themselves handled by someone who looks more or less like they're living fire. Assume we're gonna burn them." Analoka laughed, shaking her head. "Can't burn you while I'm wearing my body suit and my gloves. I'd have to take them off to leave a more lasting impression."

Rosalind nodded, but kept her thankfulness regardless. Not all in these industries kept this same method of honor and many, she knew, would have sold them off in a heartbeat. They were wanted criminals – many of them, at least. And “princess” was no easy title to throw away. “'Ccording t'my radar, we weren't. But they'll guess we're 'ere if what actually hurt 'em tells our hunters what it saw,” Rosalind said shaking her head. “We'll be careful leavin' orbit, ma'am. Dun you worry about that.”

////////

Mendez walked over to Riola sensing his discomfort, and feeling some of that himself, clapped the Edensian on the shoulder and grinned, “Don't worry. We can clean up here. They don't exactly expect us to show up in our nicest monkey suits. It's a medical center and our friends are in critical condition. They understand, and if they don't they can suck it, si?” He fiddled with his own excuse of a wallet and handed over his identification to the same man taking Fikri's, and coupled it with his old work id for confirmation. He, at least, was clear. “You look like you have a lot on your mind, but we made it! For now we're in the clear! Just try to rest, hermano. Maybe sneak away with Rosalind.”

Magali breathed a sigh of relief when everything seemed to be in order and the Ogrunu was carted away to his own pool to be fixed. Maybe she could meet him as a whole person. The Daoweian (and she recognized this only because she'd served a few) was at least conscious, though she hadn't had much of a chance to see her for who she was either. What put them in this condition? she couldn't help but think. She'd been wondering since they entered the ship but had been too busy trying to keep them alive to ask. Hearing a bit about the Edensians, she wondered if the conflict on that planet might have been the cause of it, but the Edensians with them seemed to be alright. She lit up at the prospect of getting her own identification and refrained from grabbing the immaculate Star Woman's hands with her own bloodied ones, “You'd really do that? Really?” Her own identification. Sure, it wasn't a permanent exclamation of freedom or anything, but it would establish her as her own person, at least, on paper. “Can I...Can I clean up first?”

“That would...that would be good for all of us, I think. Thank you,” Fikri said, offering the man a tired, but genuine smile. The thousand eyed stare was still there, and likely would not leave for quite some time. But this place offered a brief moment's respite. It offered a sanctuary.

////////////

Ashi nodded along, grateful for the information that Dr. Analoka gave her. “I wasn't there for their creation, though I'm thankful that they've kept him up as long as they have. If he wasn't here, I don't know what I'd do, or Hyun for that matter.” She paused a moment as her face distorted to one of pain, but she quickly composed herself, “Is there...is there a way we can improve them? Or his health here?”

Ashi looked down sighing, knowing full-well the types of prejudice any given star traveler might possess, “You're not the first of your kind that I've seen if you can believe that. I...I know that your kind is good. The two of you set an excellent standard.”

"I hope so, hermano. The last thing I want is to be seen and noticed, and covered in filth. They'll think the whole rebellion and fighting Edensia isn't going so well." Riola said, forcing a small chuckle to escape before he ran his hands into his hair and rummaged into his pockets. The least he could do is have one of his ID's out if he got asked, and if not? He'd continue to just try and be as plain and uninviting as possible. Best to not cause any problems or attract attention to himself in public every now and then. Especially in one of the few places he could consider himself safe, at least. Mendez was right though. They were clear for now. And the mention of Rosalind brought about an ease that made his shoulders feel like air. "Y'know? You're right. Should probably bother her some more. Hope she enjoys coffee. I need about a gallon of it. Even though it's gonna make me paranoid."

Analoka looked towards Magali, the plume of plasma in the semblence of a ponytail crackling a bit with energy before the star woman nodded, and clasped her hands, reaching out to examine Magali's soaked hands. No wounds on her person. The Felis was probably just doing her best as a makeshift medical attendant. The injured were still alive, albeit one in serious condition, but it was probably desperate efforts and the Felis' willingness to get blood-soaked that helped keep the Ogrunu alive at least. Analoka wasn't too sure. "Well, if you want to clean up first, feel free. Once you're done, there is a clerk here. He does birth certification and other forms of personal ID's. I can't recall his name, but he's an Indrixian. Human-looking type. Vibrantly hued eyes. Pink. Find him and he'd help you." Analoka said, the brand along her face forming into a small smile before she whisked herself away.

The man who offered refuge was soon swept back into his own musings, and Atrix watched him go for a moment, moving over towards Mende and sweeping her arms around him; the Terskix resting her head on his and preening his scalp with her mandibles, while she cooed and offered small, loving Terskixian hisses while she looked over towards the group. They were tired. Demoralized. Wounded and if Atrix could take a small guess? They were scared as well. Un-Terskixian qualities, but they were outgunned and taken by ambushes. Several of her lower limbs traced patterns along Mendez's torso while she pondered trying to be...Sociable? Was that the word the humanoids used the most when it was small talk? "...You look dirty. And tired." Was the best she could come up, and narrowing her eyes for a second, Atrix tried again. "I mean. You look nice. For being tired."

/////

The room Analoka helped Ashi into was sterile, plain and modest. In lieu of a bed seemed to be a stark white tub, with several fixtures attached to it; the tub filled with a pool of lime green colored fluid that seemed tranquil and untouched - A zen pond that offered reprieve for broken bones and hellish wounds; Analoka humming and hefting the Daoweian over towards the pools; her tone monotonous and rehearsed as she explained for the countless time the process of using the pools. "The process for Verdaqua is simple, and for the first few seconds is going to be unpleasant. You will experience a frigid sensation, due to the fact the medication must be kept cold for the best possible results." She explained, cocking her head for a second and forcing back a sneeze. "The sensation will last roughly half a minute after which, everything is going to be somewhat numb. You will most likely feel me reset some bones and handle muscle back into respective places, but other than that, the feeling will be soothing once the cold is gone. Do not drink the Verdaqua. Do not splash it around like you're in a bath. If your species is voltage or electrical in nature, let me know now so I can ionize it properly without short-circuiting your neural pathways."

Analoka coughed again, a small politeness to add a further statement. "I will also request you out of your clothing. If you need assistance, I can send for someone, or help you myself."

“They don't need to know you're part of the rebellion. Besides, what happened back at Hazoo? I don't even know that they were after you,” Mendez said, putting both his hands in his pockets and leaning back against the wall and looking back to the doors his wounded comrades had been carried through. “It seemed they wanted Ashi more, oddly enough. Which...leads me to believe that the Daoweians and Edensians are working together. But I don't think they're being up front about it. Checked the dataslate that Atrix lent me and Ashi's funeral has been all over the news. Apparently her father's painting her up like some sort of martyr.” Mendez had no id to offer. That had been left behind with most of his other worldly belongings, and he pressed his lips in a thin line wondering if he'd get in trouble for not having any. After all, his excuse was that he was kidnapped by this group rather than being a freed slave. He'd just say he left it behind in an attempt to lead a new life.

“Thought I saw her heading back to the ship, hermano. If you're gonna get alone time with her, now's probably the time. The rest of us are probably gonna clean up in the medical center,” Mendez shrugged and offered him a smile, “Never met a mechanic that didn't like coffee. Enjoy your chance with her while you can, hermano.”

Magali was perfectly still as the woman examined her arms, used to examinations from far less pleasant persons than the one looking at her now. “I'm...fine,” Magali said softly, “This blood isn't mine this time.” At the confirmation that she was going to be getting an id, the felis brightened, her ears perked with eyes glistening, “I'll look as nice as I can! And doctor...I...I really appreciate this. Thank you!” With that, Magali waved, beaming all the while and found her way to Nokra.

“Nokra, big news! Once we get cleaned up, we can get our pictures taken for ids! We get to have our own ids! Isn't that exciting?!” Magali grasped at his hands, her excitement evident through the blood soaked fur and skin and she immediately pulled her hands back, blushing, “I'm sorry about that, I uh, forgot about the blood. But, but what do you say to joining me in getting our ids together? Actual people, starting our lives over again!”

Mendez jumped when the Terskix wrapped her arms around him, but then those familiar fangs told him exactly who it was and he relaxed immediately, reveling in the small affections she gave him. His entire demeanor changed when Atrix made her appearance and he actually looked happy, content – albeit also dirty and tired. He looked up at her and offered a sleepy smile, “Thanks for the attempted compliment. But you're right. We should take this chance to get cleaned up and rested.” Here, he lowered his voice and leaned in, standing on his tip-toes to get to her hearing orifices, “Mi alma, what do you say we get cleaned up on the ship and come back to check on them once we're...rested...?”

> > >

Ashi looked about the room with wide eyes. She'd never had a reason to go to the pools, though her family could certainly afford it. The worst Ashi had ever dealt with was needing stitches after a mishap with unreached fruit and a tall tree, but that didn't merit a trip to the pools as small amounts of the verdaqua had been purchased and transported to Daowei, and the stitches only needed to stay on for a few hours. To say that Ashi was a sheltered child would be the understatement of the century, and now she found herself needing to get almost all of her appendages reset, almost completely submerged in the material. She nodded to show her understanding, but she was nervous and it showed. The pain she was in, however, was bad enough to make whatever resetting they had to do worth it.

“Out of my clothing,” Ashi repeated under her breath, nervous. None but her handmaidens had seen her naked since she was an infant, and the handmaidens only saw her long enough to do up the backs on complicated dresses. She gulped, “If...if it's not you helping me, can you send for Hyun? She ah...she's the one with pink skin...”

"It all reeks too much of coincidence, Mendez. Just happens to attack us on Hazoo where we landed? Right after the whole shindig with the princess and all of that?" Riola replied, the Edensian perking a brow at the Half-breed and going quiet for a second at the headlines. Everything was beginning to seem like a red herring, and paranoia was sinking into his mind deeper than a worm in an apple. "Martyr. Pffft. I mean, she ain't exactly innocent now. Her squeeze is one of the most violent criminals I've ever known, and I'm considered a fuckin' terrorist." Even being wanted and hunted down, the Daoweian girl was still being portrayed as a hero. It felt so wrong. At least he was saving his kind from some form of genocide.

There was no need to tell Riola twice, and the Edensian offered out fake papers, waiting for either the people to stare at him in horror, or what had actually happened: The Edensian getting a nod and his false documents back; Riola looking towards the door they had come out from and pursing his lips into a sliver. "Yeah....Yeah you're right. Coffee. Bother her while everyone else is doing their thing." With that the Edensian excused himself; offering Mendez a quick wave of his hand before turning on his heels and taking a tired, exhausted stroll back to the ship.

Analoka offered a small nod and went back to her duties, amused and shaking her head slightly at the Felis. It was abig deal for Magali and the Star Woman knew it, but at the same time, did she really? She was born with a name. A purpose. Not someone dictating her purpose while she was forced to act on another's whim. Perhaps once the medical clients were taken care off and if they stuck around longer, Analoka would bother them to ask them about their lives. If only to sate her own curiosity.

Nokra was staring longingly at a vending machine, damning his empty pockets when the voice of his angel returned; Nokra jumping a little at the latching onto of his hands when he turned to face Magali, and blinking a few times while what she said had sunk in. "Whoa, hold on fucking wait? ID's? I... I don't know what those are. Is it something we're supposed to have to be free? I kinda, never asked or tried to figure it ou. Figured I was dying in something's mouth." Looking at his red-stained hands, Nokra frowned for a second, and took a couple of deep breathes, before forcing a smile. "No for real, Magali. I'm kinda excited for it. Just don't know what to do is all."

////////

Nervousness painted on her face and audible in her tone, Analoka kept the girl in place for a moment, taking the time to make sure she didn't hurt the blue-haired girl while she was placed on an examination table ; Cold steel barely heated through the thin piece of paper laid out on top to keep fluids from staining the makeshift bed. The rigid explanation was usually what made people uncomfortable at first, but Analoka usually saw people relax once they were settled in. "...I can help you of course, the choice is yours. Though I can try and send for Ms. Chu in here now. I do need to help prep your other friend for a more vigorous dip into the pools." Analoka sighed. "Full submerging. It's not fun practice. Verdaqua in the lungs is an abhorrent feeling." The Doctor excused herself however, leaving the room to send for Hyun.

Hyun of course came almost immediately, the Chuzizian on the verges of breakdown from the look on her face, though she tried to piece herself together when she saw Ashi; the woman giving her a nonchalant shrug. "Yo. Shal's doing...Okay. They're taking off his limbs. Kinda hurts to see him as a legless, armless lump. But he's gonna be okay." She said, trying to assure Ashi and herself at the same time. "Doc said you needed me in here for something?"

“Si, si. It does. Don't think I disagree with you there,” Mendez said blowing some red hair out of his face, “But I did some research when we were on the ship. She's a wanted criminal, but that's not known. They took all the missing notices down, and there's no longer a known reward for her return. Look.” Mendez held out the dataslate Atrix lent him and pulled up the BountyBoards, “She's not here. Before her fake funeral or whatever, she was at the top – which is how I think Hyun found her. But before she ran away and the whole thing became a hostage situation, she was a media darling. She was seen participating in charities and legal reforms all over the place. Many of which her father directly opposed.” Pulling up several news stories, he scrolled through the headlines. “Something just doesn't add up. Funny thing about that though? She was seen plenty of times with the Queen of Edensia – she apparently viewed her as some sort of pet project or something, but some of the lesser known holo-news sources covered her speaking against the Queen, albeit subtly. She never liked the treatment of males on Edensia, but I get the feeling she played nice with her because she was either a.) trying to make new political connections or b.) something else entirely. And now we're in this shitshow, Edensia and Daowei chasing the two of you down like you're actually partners and neither of them seem to like Ashi very much anymore. I just wish I knew what she was planning...”

Mendez watched the Edensian stroll back through the door back to the ship and sighed. Young love. He was in it too, and deep. Atrix wasn't the woman he thought he met when he was kidnapped, and he felt he was a better man for it. The woman had showed him that things that others would generally consider disgusting could be beautiful, that he could actually fall in love with one of the less humanoid looking species, and that that love could be real – at least for him. He wished he had a way to see what she was thinking, to see if it went both ways. Maybe now was his chance to find out, while everyone was busy cleaning and resting up. When she came over, he put his hands around one of her many and gave a loving squeeze, “So how about it, corazon? A retreat to the ship while the wounded are being taken care of?”

Magali was beaming, not even noticing the vending machine and the sweets that ordinarily she would have loved. She clasped her hands in order to keep from grasping at his again, barely able to contain hersself, “It's...it's just papers, but they're papers to prove you're a person! That you're not property! We can both get them right here. I just need to get cleaned up first, and I was thinking we could both get our pictures taken together! Wouldn't that be great?!”

Fikri, who was standing close by cleared his throat and walked over to the other two felis, smiling despite his lowered ears, “Magali, in the ids, you have to be by yourself. Your identification papers are your identification. You are your own now, just like Nokra is his own. The closest you can get to combined ids would be to get married.” He pat her back, “It's another thing you two get to consider now that you're no longer slaves. I'm gonna get cleaned up in the men's facilities. We don't have showers this fancy on the ship, so use it while you can. Oh, and Nokra, now's your chance to talk to Magali about what you two want to do. I know you don't like me, but it's a suggestion that I honestly think you can do. I understand if you don't wanna stick around and be Rosalind's apprentice, but know that I won't be your enemy if you choose to stay.”

> > >

The ship was peaceful and quiet for once and Rosalind sighed contently knowing that the two they worked to transport made it safely and were going to hopefully be returning to their old selves within the next twenty-four galactic hours. There was a trail of blood leading from the makeshift medical room through the door, reminding Rosalind of the trouble that was to come. They'd already lost two faces that had at least grown familiar to the rest of the crew, and she knew that if they continued down this road, there would be more to come. She took a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth, knowing that she needed to set the camouflage, heading for the engine room immediately. The fix was an easy one, and soon she'd be able to rest, at least for a little while.

> > >

Ashi did her best to not grimace as the doctor moved her. She knew that she was being as careful as humanly possible, but busted kneecaps and an arm bent the wrong way ensured that the princess was almost perpetually in a state of discomfort and pain. The cold steel jolted through Ashi's clothes and to her skin, forcing a gasp out of her, and she nodded, “If you're needed there, please, please go to him first. I'm fine and I know I will make it. But...but I am worried about him.”

Hyun's appearance in the doorway brought a smile to the princess, despite how small and strangled it seemed to be. “If he's going to make it, that's...that's what I care about,” Ashi said quite honestly, thankful that she never had to see him without his limbs, thankful that the next time she'd see him he would be up and talking – hopefully with a set of cybernetics that didn't hurt him when he breathed. Ashi grew quiet for a moment, looking up to her girlfriend, “This is...ah, it's going to sound awkward. I told Dr. Analoka to be in there with Shaldag, so someone needs to remove my clothes...” She gulped, “I figured if I was going to have anyone do that task, it might as well be you, my...my girlfriend, do it.”

Riola paused and stared at the dataslate Mendez had brought up, his own eyes scanning for anything that could be used to figure...Anything out. Everything seemed legit, and while he didn't look at the Bounty Boards himself (Save for the occasional glimpse at his own profile, out of simple vanity.) though he had no reason to doubt either Mendez or Atrix's dataslate when it came to Ashi's disappearance from the boards. Riola himself barely kept to any other sources of news either, if only to try and be spared from the propaganda that Edensia liked to vomit out for its populace. It was the sightings with her and the Queen that raised the a few red flags. Regardless if she was there to try and low-key spread his own message, it was the simple fact she played nice with her that made his blood seethe a little. Regardless of her own desires. Perhaps he could at least try and get a glimpse into her plans. If only to see if nothing was fishy for his own motivations.

One set of Atrix's eyes followed RIola as he left while the other looked down towards Mendez, the Terskix's arms continuing their patterns along his body while she let out a small yawn herself; fangs exposed to the air before she hummed and considered the possibilities. Atrix herself didn't need much of a relaxing spell, but the half-breed probably did. And of course at least from her perspective the man was attempting to court her into the bedroom again. Pinching his shoulders for a second with her main arms, the Terskix pried herself from him and nodded slowly. "I don't suppose we can. This place already barely tolerates me. I should have a doctor look at me at some point. I think I cracked chitin and need it filled." She said, pulling down a portion of her suit and showing a spot on her shoulder. "Does it look cracked? You examine me more than I look at myself."

Nokra smiled and took a breath before pulling Magali in for a small hug; the Felis resting his head on hers and rocking her gently. Something that made him a person and not property was something he could definitely look forward to. "Well, so long as we can nab something that means we're our own people, and we can just them right now? I would be down for getting a picture with you and then having all those things." Nokra said, finally just banging a hand on one of the vending machines and sending a tiny plethora of sweets and goods down into reaching distance.

Marriage. That was the word that made Nokra blink a few times, though he began to sulk when he was told by Fikri that he had to get his picture and his ID on his lonesome. Once Fikri's piece was said and the Felis departed, Nokra coughed and looked over towards Magali, itching the back of his head while his ears pinned back to his head for a second. The time was nigh it seemed. To at least explain one thing to her. "So uh...The pilot on this ship offered to take me in. Training to fly the thing as well. And I really wanna do it." Nokra began, the Felis burrowing his heel in the floor. "I want you to stay with us, though if you wanna do your own thing I understand. I just don't want you to leave, because I'd... I'd miss you and everything."

//////

"Hermana. Don't you have a cat for fixing things?" Riola's voice echoed seemingly out of nowhere as the Edensian situtated himself right next to the horned woman, offering a hand out to her while looking towards the Engine room. "Place is neutral. You can take a break and fix everything in a bit. I was wondering if you wanted to just...Relax? I mean, we haven't had much time to just hang out. Even day one drinks was interrupted a bit by a bleeding Ogrunu. Come to think of it, this is the second time him bleeding was in between us, haha." Riola said, snickering for a moment before exhaling. "Truth though, I hope he's okay."

\\\\\\

Hyun perked a bit of brow flesh and placed a hand on her hip, looking towards the open door of the Daoweian Princess' room, before chuckling and rolling her eyes. "Next thing you want is me in a nurse outfit. One of them tight ones you see in pornos, giving you the fingers while you're laying there." Hyun snorted, before rolling her shoulders and nodding a few times. "Shal's doing better already. A few injections of this healing shit, and he's already more stable than before. Minus whoever turned him into a robot killing him. That's me. Because I'm a fuckup and cut corners on him." Hyun sighed, moving over to Ashi. "...I'm not super gentle. Clothes removing is gonna hurt, unless you want me to just cut you out of everything."

Mendez leaned his head back, thinking that if he was a felis he might actually be purring. Then, he didn't know if that was something that felis actually did...The patterns were hypnotizing, and Mendez found himself closing his eyes, content with all that was happening at the moment. “We should ask before we get comfortable,” Mendez said, turning to get a better look at her shoulder. Mendez had to stand on the front balls of his feet to see the top of her shoulder. “I'm only too happy to examine you, mi alma,” he said softly, running his finger gently over the crack that she spoke of. “It does...How did this happen?” He didn't think it could have been his fault – it was always Atrix that was rough with him as opposed to the other way around, and his eyes showed the worry that he couldn't hide. “I'll go with you so they feel less threatened, but we really should get that fixed before we leave.”

Magali's eyes went wide and she blinked, hugging him back and breathing in his non-blood-soaked smell, “You're going to be covered in blood too now.” Her voice was sheepish, but she wasn't willing to pull away just yet, burying her face in his neck. “These are the pictures that we use until it expires in a few years, so we should get clean first, okay?” She pulled back, bringing her hands down to his. This type of physical contact was the only thing that Magali had ever known. It was how she showed someone that she cared about them, and it came naturally to her. In fact, she didn't know of other ways one could show affection. To her, these weren't only romantic reactions – they they certainly could be.

She gave his hands a squeeze, looking into his eyes, “I will stay. This ship goes all over the galaxy, right? Or the universe? I want to see it all, and I want to see it all with you.”

> > >

Rosalind jumped, spinning on her heel her face immediately brightening, “Ah, Fikri? He's more for cookin' things an' keepin' me sane on long trips.” Rosalind stepped forward placing both of her arms around Riola's shoulders, “This'll take only a minute – the ship needs t'be camouflaged.” As she spoke, she reached over flicking a switch. The ship hummed for a moment and Rosalind nodded, “Less than, it seems.” She straightened and pecked Riola softly on the lips, “Doc says 'e'll be alright, an' for that ah'm grateful. Ah'm also grateful for th' chance t' stop an' catch my breath. What about you? How ye holdin' up with all the stuff that's been goin' on?”

> > >

A small smile crept across Ashi's lips and she raised her eyebrows. “While I wouldn't mind that, I'd like it more if I wasn't in actual need of medical assistance,” she said, chuckling a moment only to grimace. “I'm glad to hear he'll be alright. I just...I wish that we could say the same for Toka. She meant everything to him. Don't...don't say that you're a fuckup. You're not. You did what you had to to keep him alive, and I for one am grateful that you saved him. Here, though, I hope that he gets better.”

Her eyes went up to the ceiling, doing her best not to move any parts of her body that she didn't need to, “I think all of my spare clothes were either left in Hazoo or were left on the old ship...but I think that's what we may need to do.” Ashi sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was get her only set of clothes cut off of her, but her arm was bent in places other than her elbow, and attempting to squeeze out of a sleeve didn't seem feasible. “Would you...ah...cut me out?” she asked, gulping.

Atrix sighed when Mendez had confirmed her suspicions, the Terskix rolling a set of eyes before shifting her shoulders and lowering her limbs from their patterned marches across the Half-breed. Talking to the doctors here was going to be a pain, like it was in every single place she had gone to for medical care. A lack of seeing her species, and just reading them left doctors with the horrid act of constantly asking her questions about her health; Atrix cringing at the thought of having to be more social than she already was. "Probably happened during the whole incident with the Felis' lover. Explains why I've been sore." Atrix hummed, looking around to try and pluck a nurse or doctor over to them, casting her glance back at Mendez and yawning; the Terskix tapping a foot on the ground in annoyance at nothing in particular. "I hate the medical castes on other worlds."

Nokra laughed and looked down at himself, a little Magali-shaped bloodprint on his person soiling the scent in the air, though the male didn't seem to really care. "Mags, please. I've been in the fucking pits for most of my life. This is like a papercut's worth of blood to me at this point." Nokra twitched an ear and then scratched it, plucking something sticky from the tip and hissing when it stung. "Yeah yeah, gotta look my best for freedom pictures, right?" He teased, leaning in close and giving her a flash of her eyes.

It was her mention of staying on the ship that made him almost vibrate with delight, the Felis hiding a giant smile under a nonchalant gaze while he squeezed her hands back and gave her a small spin, twirling her with an arm like a dancer. "See it all, then find a place we like and just stay there."

>>>>>>

"Oi, I was talking about the other Felis. The one who wants to help fly the thing, and has some sorta complex when it comes to his lady-friend." Riola replied with a small chuckle at his own summary of Nokra. Once her arms were around him, it was game over for Riola and he found himself half-listening to the plans for the ship, and half-oogling the Pyra with as stealthy of an eye as he could. "Fine fine. I'm glad the big guy is doing better. Was more worried about you running yourself ragged with exhaustion than anything." Riola hummed, finally rubbing his head and pursing his lips. "...Thinking of offering...Shaldag? I am horrible with names, the chance to join up with me. I know he's gonna want some kind of payback. And having him around to help? It's like a walking tank with a chip on it's shoulders having our rears."

>>>>>>

Toka. That was the whole wildcard with Shaldag at this point, and nothing was more troubling to Hyun than the passing of Shaldag's little star child. He was probably too delirious to really comprehend it all considering his wounds, and now that he was going to be recuperating and can reflect? Hyun felt like the Daoweians and the Edensians woke up a sleeping giant, and while she had never seen Shaldag in prime as a Warlord? What he was capable of just as a grunt was terrifying enough. "Fuckin' Toka. Couldn't save her either. Should have had her stick around with us instead of whisking her away. Fuck, Ashi. Half of the shit that went down could have been prevented. I'm so fucking hung up on the 'What ifs' that it's gonna keep me awake."

The mention of clothes made Hyun shrug, and looking at the blood-soaked garments Ashi was wearing? It probably didn't matter much. "Can just borrow something from the Felis or one of the other people if it comes down to it." Hyun said, scratching her head and cocking her gaze to the side, before shrugging, and helping Ashi out of pants first. That one would hurt the most, and while Hyun was less than gentle; the scalpel she produced was sliced through cloth like it was butter; Hyun tossing the ruined clothing onto the ground.

>>>>>>>

Analoka took one look at the disassembled man in front of her and shook her head. She had seen the worst of the worst come in, but this man was both ragged from some form of brutal warfare, and was put back together haphazardly when he was still walking around. Looking at a tray of rusted part, and trying to find serial numbers, Analoka huffed and decided it was best to not get angry at the whole ordeal - The Star Woman moving over towards the Ogrunu who had been situated in the pool. His jaw had thankfully been reattached. A plastic replacement there until more permanent options were found.

"Can you understand me? You are in a hospital sir." Analoka said, waving a finger and sighing with relief when the Ogrunu followed it, and blinked a few times with his only eye.

"The nurses have you stabilized but it will be some time before you will be 100%. In the meantime, if you have any sort of documentation for your cybernetics or documents to detail your recovery, I would like to see them. May I have permission to find them?"

Shaldag grunted, and managed to produce a few words. "Jacket...Pocket.. Cybernetic plans...For rebuilding me."

Analoka nodded and moved towards his neatly stacked belongings, finding the small dataslate she had been told to find and opened it, the woman scrolling down; only for her plasma to smolder and cool down for a moment - Seeing a picture of another star-person, followed by...Schematics.

The schematics however, made her sniffle a bit and turn to face Shaldag.

"You...You couldn't possibly want this...What you're asking? Even if you could afford it...You'll be even less of your organic self..."

Shaldag grunted once more and took a deep breath,. "I just....Want revenge. My chance to return to the tides? Fuck The Tides."

Mendez grasped a set of Atrix's hands, giving them a gentle squeeze, “I'll be there to make sure they don't try anything on you, si, hermana?” He was looking forward to this about as much as Atrix was. He knew the stigmas that she must face here, and as her lover, he knew he must face them as well. Again, he was reminded of the doctor on Hazoo – one used to the terrors of the gang life – who adamantly suggested that he ditch Atrix while he could. Of course, as promised, Mendez denied him and stayed with Atrix regardless. The risks were already well-known. He needed no one else to remind him of that. “Do ya think that maybe you could just take a dip in one of the pools? Would that fix it, or is it different with chitin?”

That laugh was everything Magali wanted to hear. Back on Hazoo, he rarely smiled. His face was always contorted to one of pain or worry, depending on who got the worst of that day's clientele. She could remember after one particularly rough person who paid not only double for her services but also for a trip to Verdaqua. Nokra looked scared then, seeing her broken body as she was being carted away to a ship. Of course they'd asked for her information then, and when the question of slavery came up her master simply retorted by telling them that the enslavement of felis was so common they could call whoever they wanted – no help would come. If they refused to treat her, he'd make her work in this condition. The medical staff at the time had no choice but to mend her and send her right back. But then, even then, Nokra was there waiting when she returned. Nokra was more than likely most familiar with this planet; his life in the pits being no walk in the park either. But now, they were free, and Magali was looking at Nokra's laughing face with only the most joyous of joys, the sun was no longer hiding behind a mass of clouds, it was out and shining now, victorious as the two felis were in this moment. “...You're right, but still, it's something that you can get away from being used to now, right?”

Magali giggled as her feet left the ground and she was being twirled around like a kitten. “Yeah, see it all,” she breathed, her sigh content. “We finally made it. To the place we always spoke of. Who would have thought that our first days of freedom would be spent helping two of the people that allowed our slavery to go on? Still, they also gave us our freedom...”

> > > > > > > > > > > > >

Rosalind laughed, shoulders shaking, “Ah'm lettin' the lad rest. It's 'is first time on solid ground as a non-slave. 'Sides, 'e's gettin' his id today. I remember what a big deal that was for Fikri. Ah imagine et'd be the same for them.” The pyra almost couldn't believe that she was with the one she intended to take home as a lover for the first time alone, and despite her tiredness, she was beaming. “'E's learnin' quick, that one is. I let 'im take the wheel for a bit when ah knew we had t'stay under a certain speed an' 'e 'andled her beautifully. Ah've got 'opes that he'll give me the rest I need.”

The pyra stepped back to look Riola in the eyes, those golden pools that she'd already fallen in love with once again taking her in. “If ye think 'e'd join our cause, ah won't stop ye. But, ye do know that if 'e comes along, Hyun an' Ashi will likely join 'im, right? I know ye don't like the princess...”

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

At the moment, Ashi was sure of only two things: that she would (at least) make it out of this alive and that she would remain with Hyun and Shaldag regardless of what that entailed. Guilt ate at her, and she wanted to believe that she paid penance with the beating she'd taken, but she knew why they were there. The presence of the Daoweians was enough to confirm it. The king would never go out of his way to send his best after some Edensian terrorist, and the Edensians were there with the Daoweians. She was at least partially responsible for Shaldag's condition and...Toka's death. “I wish...I wish we could have seen it coming. I wish I could have done something. I...I should have offered myself up. Then maybe she'd still be with us, maybe they all would have...”

Ashi winced, the blade of the scalpel touching her skin on the dull side, and soon one of her one pairs of pants were reduced to tattered fabric stuck under her backside. The room was cold, as medical facilities generally were, and through the pain she could feel goosebumps bubbling to the top of her skin. She wanted to bring her knees up to her chest for warmth, but moving brought the utmost pain. The shirt soon followed and she felt bare, exposed, ever conscious of how horrible she likely looked. She shivered and nodded, “I wonder if either of them escaped with any of their possessions...”

Atrix's hands returned the squeeze, before breaking apart from Mendez and itching her sides while the Terskixian twisted and adjusted herself - Mandibles letting out a shrill, sharp clack while she pondered the half-breed's idea, only to shake her head and purse her lips. "I don't think it needs a full dip in the pools. I'm unable to afford anything like that." She said with a nonchalant drone, looking towards her shoulder and then letting out a small hiss when she touched it. "I could probably just see to one of the doctors filling it. That would hold it at least until have to shed my chitin pieces." Pondering about her future shedding, Atrix gave a small shake of her head and adjusted her hair, before taking a small breath and exhaling, deciding on planting a small kiss on the man's forehead; moving slowly of course. Last thing she needed was people thinking she was eating her interest in the hallway.

Nokra had considered services in the only world he knew, but had never told Magali anything of the sort. Old habits died hard and when you spent a vast majority of your life making something or someone else's life end? It seemed like the only viable solution at times. "I don't even have fancy enough clothes to look like a free Felis either. Guess I'll settle for the whole, fresh out of the collar look for now, until I can get some quantas to look a little better, right?" Nokra beamed, returned her content sigh with a warm, soft purr-turned chuckle. "Well, I mean I guess we owe them for freedom I guess. I didn't stab any of them, so it's whatever to me. Not my worry if one of them goes sour. We're free now. That's what's important."

"I don't even know where to go from here, to be honest. I wanna visit someplace warm. And with somewhere I can spend my time in the water relaxing once all the work on a ship is done. Looking at everyone else, they could probably use the same thing." Rubbing his head, Nokra also decided on finally probing the question that had been bothering him since he saw Atrix. "That Terskix isn't...Bothering you is she? I can deal with her if she is. No one is eating my friend."

>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Congrats to the kiddies. See what I did there?" Riola snirked, before nodding a few times. He never had the worry about getting anything to assert his freedom, and he couldn't imagine both the anxiety and the joy getting identification was for the Felis. All three of them, not just the recently freed duo. "Well, he didn't crash us in a disintegrating ball of death, so I assume his mentor is the best trainer around. Might have to take that girl for more coffee or something." Riola said with a small wriggle of his body, exhaling and letting the stress escape his body. "He'll probably get you an actual night's of rest, si. You need it. Can't let the ship run you, amore."

Rubbing the back of his head, those molten pupils of his faded for a moment and Riola's face grew sheepish. "I figured the other two would probably tag along. I'm willing to work with the two. I just wanna...Keep as wide of a berth as I can from the princess. Princesas just always have a habit of being bad things for wannabe rebels and such."

>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hyun shook her head and let her hair-tendrils jingle while she shaked the 'What-if's' out of her mind completely. The look on her face was stoic, and Hyun gave Ashi a small, deadpan glare. "It's not your fault. We shouldn't have even let the little Star Chick in our ranks to begin with. Should have just told Shaldag to piss it with her. She'd probably have been alive still doing whatever." Flaring her nasal slits, the Chuzizian bit her lower lip for a second, hard enough to draw a bit of blood, only for her regeneration to close the wound a few moments later. "Offer yourself up and you'd probably be dead too. It's lose-lose."

"Well, if they don't have anything, there's always some scrubs or something we can pilfer from the hospital until we get you something you like." Hyun said, looking at the strips of filthy clothing and tossing them to the side. Using a scalpel and not hurting someone was the real challenge here, and Hyun was doing her absolute best; though her mind flickered with brief visions of that knife driving into Ashi's skin and drawing red. "For someone who looks mangled, you look cute, all shuddering and cold like that."

For the moment, Mendez was content. No, he wasn't fond of the way his love was treated on this planet, but knowing Atrix, she was probably used to it. Racism against the Terskix wasn't unique to Verdaqua, and it was something that he now had to adjust to. Standing on his toes, he looked down at the small crack, running his finger on the outside of it. “I'll go with you,” he said at some length after getting back down to his level, “You'll be harder to harass if there's a member of a different species around backing you up. Is...is shedding hard? I can care for you when you go to shed if you'd like.” The anatomical processes that Atrix had to go through were another thing requiring adaptation. Her entire physiology was different from everything he grew up knowing about women of more humanoid races, and he wanted to learn if only to make both their lives easier. He grabbed one of her hands, “C'mon, mi alma, let's go get you fixed.”

The future hung suspended on unstable strings for Magali as well. She'd spent her entire life serving one purpose as well, and as far as actual skills went, charisma was perhaps the one thing she had going for her. There were none that hated the female felis that she could think of, earning admiration from just about everyone that she'd ever met. It made her a popular choice at the club. She thought of Fikri and how he'd been used in similar ways to her, but when he spoke, he sounded intelligent. He was well-articulated and the one chance she had to look at his journal, she saw that it wasn't written in common. He spoke at least two languages, and she wondered how he did it. If he was a sex slave, like her, where had he learned all that he had? Maybe he would be her gateway to finding out what she could do. “I...well, my clothes were fancy. But now? Not so much...I'll clean them as much as I can I guess,” she said, then added smiling, “But it doesn't matter! We'll get new clothes eventually, and we can now! We're free!” She wrapped Nokra up in another hug, breaking it only to keep her hands on Nokra's shoulders beaming at him, “I think you still can make friends with them. Fikri seems nice, I'm sure he'd be willing to talk to you.”

The mention of the Terskix made Magali look down and she shook her head, “No. No, she's not bothering me. I've ah...I've seen hungry Terskix. I've been with hungry Terskix – you saw what happened that night – and she didn't seem like she was going to eat me.” She fidgeted where she stood for a moment before plastering on another slightly less genuine smile on, “If anything, she's being nice to me. She's been treating me almost the same as she treats that red-haired man. The one with the hair on his face. But, if things ever look bad, I will let you know, alright?”

> > > > > > > > > > > > >

A full-hearted belly laugh came from Rosalind, ever the sucker for puns and she leaned in to embrace the Edensian, resting her head on his shoulder, “He's a quick learner, that lad. Ah'd love t'see what 'e can do with practice an' a good stress-free lesson. It also means ah might get a chance t'rest once in a while. Spend some time with the man I've been pinin' over since 'e boarded.” She broke the embrace to plant a kiss on his cheek. “That pilot won't say no to some good freshly brewed coffee an' a nap.”

The topic turned serious again and Rosalind found herself sighing, “There's one good thing 'bout 'er though. Everyone thinks she's a goner. No one but the king's goons and the shits from Edensia are huntin' for 'er. That...an' we got a good portion' o' the king's coffers at our disposal now, provided Hyun continues t'share.” She shook her head, breathing in deep through her nose, “There's a lot t'think of, but ah think if anyone can find out what the princess is thinkin', see if she's makin' 'er grand reveal or what have you, ye'd be the one t'do it. But, for now, let's put all that behind us an' spend some much desired time together, aye?”

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Ashi cringed under that glare, despite having many more things to cringe at. The room was cold as was evidenced by certain features on her body. She wanted to curl up, wrapping her arms around herself. She wanted to be behind her piano, letting her fingers dance across imported Earthen keys. She wanted to think about anything but the people chasing her, anything but the lives that had been lost because she was in their presence. She was at a loss as to how to respond to Hyun's words and she closed her eyes for a moment trying to decide how to respond. “I'm...I'm glad to have met her. I just...I wish things ended differently. I wish they could have seen how harmless she was, left her alone. I won't...I won't offer myself up. And I'm not going to reveal that I'm alive yet. That right now would do more harm than good. We need to plant seeds first, get organized. We've lost so much already; we need to be smart about where to go from here.” She stopped to look up at Hyun as she attempted to subtly cover her chest with her good arm.

“Scrubs would be fine, anything to cover up once I'm out. Do you...do you know if this place has any modest clothing stores or anything like that? If not, we'll get our chance someday,” she mustered a laugh and immediately regretted it, her face recontorting to a wince, “Well, I'm thankful you like me at my worst, here's hoping you like me at my best, right?”

Atrix couldn't help but smile a bit; hand idly coming up to itch her face and cover the grin on her face while she managed bring her composure back to its normal, neutral self. Racism was rampant when you were a Terskix, and a female of the species no less due to one being the warriors and the first faces people generally got to see when it came to an unfortunate encounter with her kind. Atrix tensed a bit when his fingers traced themselves near the crack on her chitin, and the Teskix fought back an almost involuntary urge to lash out at the aggressor nearing a weak point. "I shouldn't have to rely on other humanoids to cover my own back," She said sourly, before sighing and nodding at Mendez, "But it is appreciated. Shedding? It's not hard. Only the chitinous bits fall off and regrow. They get tender, but I've learned to ignore it." Once one of her hands was taken, the Terskix squeezed tightly and let herself be led by the Edensian Half-breed. "I'm already hungry again." She murmured to herself.

Nokra groaned and looked at Magali like an impudent child for a moment, the mention of Fikri fouling up the air around them. It was an overreaction of course and he knew it. But at the same time? He felt justified in being this way. The more... "Civilized" slaves like Magali and Fikri had somewhat a bond of their own in some ways. It was something the more laborous of the slaves had always commented on, Nokra included. And it was something that Nokra couldn't have with Magali; the sheer thought of the other Felis being able to share that sent a bit of boiling blood to his veins, though the former gladiator gritted his teeth; Magali's voice and gentle touch cooling his temper and sheathing his anger. "Well, I am probably gonna have to try and be friends with him. I'm essentially working with the guy now. Whatever. Let's just be excited for freedom right now. We can worry about making nice with people later, right?"

"Good, good. I mean, she'd probably rip me in half. But I'll make sure she didn't pick on you." Nokra said, puffing his cheeks and shooting a glance towards the redhead and the arachnid-esque woman. How that ever happened was just as incredulous as his now-freedom. "Won't ever forget that night. That was...Something. Think she's keeping the redhead around to eat him later? He looks a bit pudgy in my opinion. Probably fattening him up before she does the whole...Terskix thing." Nokra quipped, snorting right after and itching his ear, only to move over to Magali and scoop her up in a bridal carry. "C'mon. Might as well start the whole cleaning up bit so we can get our ID's faster."

<<<<<<<<<

"Well, the quicker he learns everything he needs to learn, that faster I can just have him take over to I can bond with the captain more. Who knows? I sleep with her enough and keep loving her, I'll get promoted, and can tell Mendez to wash my clothes." Riola snickered, adjusting himself when the Pyra rested her head on him so her horns woudn't put any unneeded pressure on his person. "I've seen the man you're pining on. What a guy. Heard he blows things up and fights tyranny. I'd date him." Returning the kiss with one of his own on her forehead, the Edensian shrugged a shoulder, and looked up towards the ship lighting, watching rays of barely visible pink bounce from once side to the other in the florescent lighting.

"Si...Si. Enough worrying about the whole rebelling and worrying about that shit. We can think about it once everyone attaches missing limbs and whatnot." Riola muttered, wrapping his arms around Rosalind and letting out a content sigh. "I'll give you five qantas if you can also convince Atrix to try and eat Nokra too. If only as a joke."

>>>>>>>>>

"People like that don't tend to care how helpless people are. Especially when they're in the slums and such. I can attest to that for a fact. Same with Shaldag. Probably Riola too. Being an Edensian male is probably just as shitty as what goes on with your planet. But you're right," Hyun said, defeat the only tone to come out of her words. "...She was pretty great to fuckin' know. Never missed a beat being happy and chipper. Guess that's why Shaldag kept her around. Bastard has always been miserable." Hyun sunk a bit into herself when Ashi began to make plans. All this rebellion? This whole trying to make two planets entirely different? Had she not been in a fling with Ashi, Hyun would have laughed it off. A stupid, childish fever dream that would end up getting the Daoweian killed. "You know. For trying to make the world a better place, I'm not gonna be much help. They're gonna see Hyun-chu. The chick who runs a huge gang, and has a rap sheet in several systems a mile long. Just a head's up. If you want me in, I'd have to take somewhat of a back seat on things."

"Wouldn't see why they don't have anything for you to wear. Place is big enough. People gotta buy clothes somewhere. Once you're outta here, we'll throw scrubs on you and then find you something a bit less...Hospital-y to cover your tits in." Hyun snorted, blinking a few times and then moving to find a seat; the Chuzizian pulling a wheeled stool with her foot over where she could plop down on it. "Well, I mean it's either we just click well Ashi, or the whole Lima Syndrome is hitting hard."

That smile was everything Mendez sought and he stepped back slightly, grinning and thankful that it was him that managed to squeeze a smile out of his lover. Bringing his hand back, he glanced behind them. A few of the medical staff paused in their duties when they thought they weren't noticed to gawk at the inter-species couple and his grin immediately changed to a scowl. The looks they gave him were almost as bad as those they gave to her, but with him the fear was absent – there was only disgust. He breathed in through his nose and sighed leading the way to the desk, “Let's get that crack fixed and then I can cook you up a steak. Nice and rare, just the way you like it. We'll get you something you like a little more once we get out of this place.”

Magali sighed, recognizing the look immediately; Nokra hated Fikri. And being Magali, she still could not place why. The fellow felis was the reason they were where they were as freed peoples. Instinctively, her hands went to grasp at his, giving them a gentle squeeze. They were soft to Nokra's calloused and overworked hands, a fact that she'd never been ignorant of. It was yet another reason to love and appreciate Nokra. He worked hard in areas that would never allow him to be soft. “Yes, we're free! Do you know what I can say to people now? I can tell them no! No matter how much money they have!” She was wiggling in place excited at the prospect of choice.

She was still with the mention of the Terskix and nodded, “I've...been with Terskix before. It's best just to be respectful and keep them full... If they aren't hungry they generally stick to what they paid for...” The wording was careful, as it always was. She knew that Nokra knew what it was that she had to do, but she also knew that he didn't like it. Laughing when the subject turned a bit more lighthearted she shook her head, “I don't think so. If she was going to eat him, she would have by now, especially since I haven't seen her eat yet... She's likely hungry but keeps him around. I...I don't know if Terskix are capable of loving? But he's still alive for a reason I guess. I actually think he's a normal weight and we're just...under.” She burst into a fit of giggles once she felt her feet lifted from underneath her and wrapped her arms around Nokra's neck, almost disappointed when they got to the cleaning area and saw that it was divided by gender. The concept confused her. Why did it matter? They were just bodies, and everyone was shaped a little differently – what was the point in keeping them separated? She beamed at Nokra, “See you once we're all cleaned up?”

>>>>>>>

“Well, the cap'll be sure t'teach 'im as quickly an' efficiently as possible,” Rosalind said, smiling. Her being alone with Riola was almost too good to believe and Rosalind aided in the shifting, frustrated that her own horns got in the way in these romantic endeavors. As if it was possible, the matter was worse with other Pyra. Horns getting caught on horns and if they weren't careful the entire thing could just be a mess. “What can ah say? Ah've got a thing for bad boys,” she murmured, taking a lock of Riola's red hair and twirling it around her finger, “They 'ave an easier time keepin' up.”

Rosalind was eager to put the thought of rebellion behind them, at least, for the moment. Now was the time for rest, much needed rest, and some time to bond with the man she'd been pining over since he stepped foot on her ship. “Need the lad around t'let me get my 'ands on this redheaded terrorist ah've 'ad my eye on. 'E's protected under me. Let's compromise an' not let the spider muss up m'ship an' make our way to the pilot's quarters?”

<<<<<<<<

“It's...awful. I just...I guess I don't understand it,” Ashi murmured, her voice catching at the end. Until now, she hadn't had a chance to really dwell on Toka's death. She didn't know her well, but she knew her well enough that she didn't deserve to die. Her least of all. She wouldn't voice this out loud, but she wished it was her and not the sun-child that was killed. Toka...she was so innocent, more innocent than Ashi even. “It's worse,” Ashi said, looking up to Hyun, “In Daowei, the subjugation is subtle. In Edensia? If a male so much as speaks out, he risks execution. It isn't right. That's why as much as Riola hates me, I will always try to help him if I can.” She was resolute in her words, “And if Shaldag wakes up with vengeance in his heart, I'm guessing I'll get the chance. And as far as helping Shaldag goes? I can't promise I will be as happy and chipper as Toka was, but I will be there for him, just as you are.”

Ashi was silent for a moment and she nodded, “That's alright, so long as I have you to come home to. But...I can't just sit by and do nothing. I was born into a position that allows me some sort of power – media sway, mostly – and I would be foolish to throw that away and do nothing with it. Maybe...foolish was the wrong word. It would be evil of me to not do anything about it.” Oddly enough, her being stark naked in front of Hyun was not on the foreground of her thoughts as she assumed it was. Hyun made no big deal out of it, so it wasn't one. If there was anything that was bothering her, it was the fact that she was freezing and in pain – a matter made worse by the first. “I hope the doc gets in soon,” Ashi muttered, her teeth beginning to chatter, “My Stockholm Syndrome will be easier to handle once my kneecaps are together and I can breathe without my ribs stabbing me.”

Food was somthing the Terskix was looking forward to more than anything, and Mendez was willing to feed her? It was almost as if fevered dreams were becoming true. Atrix blinked a few times and savored the thought. Who knew? Maybe the next time the Halfbreed would be dragging some fallen enemy into her clutches for her to devour next; and the Terskix's toeclaws wriggled with anticipation at such a day. Atrix was oblivious to some of the looks. If anything, the Spider-y woman was more concerned in the fact they were looking at Mendez. An arm wrapped around him and eyes narrowed on a few of the workers, the message clear as day:

Mine.

The desk was taken care of by some sort of robotic being, the oddly metallic being tapping away at a desk and making Atrix look towards it in confusion. She had traveled many places and she had never seen anyone like that. Clicking her mandibles audibly to catch the being's attention, Atrix sucked in as much air as she could and slowly exhaled, before brandishing her cracked chitin at the desk attendant. "I need this fixed."

Magali's hands were on his and his fury began to slowly fade away like a waning moon. Choice was something that he was going to have to get used to himself. He had followed a few of the people on the ship without so much as a question towards their motives. Now he had the chance to do so. But just how exactly did someone refuse a request without it leading to conflict? The last time Nokra had seen anyone from his slave pens say such a thing, he and several others ended up watching the offending Felis be fed to the beasts. Suppressing a shudder Nokra yawned and flicked a tongue across his teeth as he shifted a tired, upbeat glance at the female. "I mean, now you can even slap them when they're being rude too. I'd pay money to watch you backhand someone. Just saying."

Once her arms were wrapped around his neck, Nokra shifted her into a more comfortable carry and trotted along, ears wriggling in place as muscles tensed and the Felis carried his friend. "That's a lot of spider-woman to let them do their thing. I mean, you'd probably have to stick a whole arm up there, if you catch my drift. But I should probably not talk so much shit to her." Nokra mused outloud, stopping suddenly to let a stretcher and several aides rush by to another room - Nokra looking in that direction out of curiosity before carrying onwards. "I mean if you show me a Terskix who is capable of love, I'll show you a Felis who isn't viewed like a pricy object to parade around." The cleaning area was of course divided by gender, though Nokra didn't seem fazed by it in the slightest, the Felis rolling his eyes and looking towards Magali. "...Another fun thing about being free is breaking the rules. I won't tell anyone if you won't." Nokra said, waggling his brows and giving her the wry grin of a young adult with a rather specific itch in mind.

>>>>>

Horns locked with other horns was the thought in Riola's mind and he couldn't imagine having thing adorning his own crown. He would have spent half of his life just stuck in crevices and railings if he was a Pyra. "Just throw him a book about traveling and flying, and then step in when he almost kills us. That's how bomb-making for me went. I'm surprised I still have all my fingers." Riola spurted, the Edensian tilting into the finger as the hair wrapped around and tightened "Bad boys? I'm not bad guy. I'm doing the right thing. Y'know. Killing people and all of that, I suppose. But only the other bad ones. So I can keeping wooing you, si?" Riola blinked a few times and clicked his tongue before whispering to himself a bit in Edensian. The room felt incredibly hotter than it was a few minutes ago. "...I don't have a response to keeping up. You win there, chica."

"I mean, you can just order Fikri to take the wheel. So you know. You can take your hands off the ship and plant them all over the terrorist on board." Riola said. He was laying it on as thick as he could and while he was sure his mother was up in the heavens looking at him with her face in her palm at his attempts to be romantic, it was working. "Well, if we're heading to your bunk, I won't say no. If only because mine is mostly just a few crates of my shit. No bed there yet."

>>>>>

"Well, not to be an asshole but of course you kinda don't know. You're gonna learn soon once we manage to get you hidden, and you can run around as something less of being a fuckin' princess. Gotta find you an alias or something once we're outta here." Hyun chimed, shifting weight from one leg to another. She wished this place would let her light up a cigarette. Snort some Chellix. Literally anything to numb the whole situation. Her arm when up to her nasal slits almost out of habit, though she forced the limbs away; the Magenta colored woman closing her eyes and slowly opening them. "Fuck. The day I see men doing something other then laboring and being poles for the women to sit on? I'll fucking become a nun. Complete with the whole chastity bit and the lack of drinking. Not really. Fuck that." Hyun scoffed, rolling her eyes and then settling on a half-worried, half-tired look. "Provided he wants to stay with us. This could have been the straw to break the fuckin' Ogrunu's back, you know."

"Don't get your panties all twisted on the whole 'evil' and 'good' kinda deal. You using it or not using it isn't gonna pin a fuckin' halo or horns on your head. Just do what you think is right, and stop worrying on if the shit is black or white. World and life is too fucking gray, you know?" Hyun droned. Enough serious talk had gone on. Too much for the Chuzizian's tastes, and now she flet more or less keen on observing Ashi's naked form. Well, her mangled, naked form. Even a beat up mess the woman was nice to look at. "You know. For how fucked you look, you're still nice to look at. Would have gotten me a fortune if I threw you to the snuff crews. They'd make a decent holovid of you." It was a shitty compliment, and Hyun knew it, but it was a compliment nonetheless.

The doors to their room slid open and Analoka was there, dataslate in hand and her plasma fading and waning; the fiery green woman more like a small, cozy candle flicker rather than a gout of inferno. "Well, the good news is we're going to be able to get started on the Daoweian's treatment." She said, moving over towards the two and then doublechecking to make sure her gloves were in place. Once they were set the dataslate went to Hyun-chu, who looked at it and raised a brow.

"The fuck is this?"

Analoka sighed and shrugged a shoulder, the woman sweeping up Ashi in her arms and swiftly and deftly placing her in the empty verdaqua tub. "Excuse the sudden and rough treatment. Sooner and quicker is better than being tender when it comes to moving broken-limbed humanoids sometimes. Adjust yourself as best as you can and I'll begin the treatment." She said, turning towards Hyun to address her comment.

"Shaldag is requesting an experimental procedure. A full-body prosthesis. Currently his cybernetic to organic ratio is roughly thirty to seventy percent. With this treatment we're looking at something far more drastic. Roughly 75-80 percent mechanical." Analoka said grimly, wriggling her fingers and moving to the command console to the tub. "I can do it but it will not come at a small cost. Financially, or for the Ogrunu's spirituality. And of course, there's a chance for psychological damage to manifest as well. Cybernetics that augmented have a chance to cause a condition known as Cyberpsychosis. He'll get agitated more easily. Possibly more violent. Empathy can fade away into nothingness at the wrong trigger." Analoka explained; Hyun herself paling at the thought before she pressed pink fingers against her head.

"Fuck me, why don't you tell me something good, Doc?"

"I can't do the treatment if only because you're financially responsible. However, the Ogrunu is also requesting euthanasia if you don't say yes."

In an ideal world, Mendez would be feeding his beloved something much better than a steak. He envisioned his dragging back of some Edensian corpse, mostly in one piece so Atrix could pick and choose the parts she wanted for herself. After all, what were they to do with a corpse anyway? Bury it? Let it waste away in the ground? It was much better to not let anything go to waste. At least, that's what Mendez told himself. He'd only killed once or twice before, and one of those occasions was little more than a happy accident. But if this shitty trend that they were on kept up Atrix would have her fill of humanoid cheeks all she wanted. How the hell am I supposed to cook a humanoid? I saw her eat them cooked before, but it's not like I have a Terxixian cook book... The thoughts didn't even begin to cover his anxieties, knowing full well that even the thought of carving into a corpse – to say nothing of cooking it – was going to be the hardest mental block to surpass.

The possessive look Atrix exuded was comforting amidst the disapproving looks of the hospital staff. Yes, he was hers, and he had no qualms of showing it. As the pair approached the counter, his hand found one of hers and he could feel his tense shoulders start to droop, relaxed.

Atrix's drawn out sigh was hardly necessary as the robotic's head was already up and focused on them. “We can do that, yes, absolutely,” the robot said, nodding its metallic head and clicking away at some keys, “You are with The Odyssey crew, yes? So you have the funds to cover it?”

> > > > >

Magali was anything but blind to Nokra's reaction to her touch. She'd felt it many times with various customers, their current troubles melting with the purchase of an hour or two alone with her. But it was different with Nokra. He was the first and only person she'd felt her own anxieties dissipating like fog in the exposure of the morning's first rays of sun. She tightened her grip around him, burying her face in his neck and breathing in deep. An unconscious smile played on her lips and in this moment of freedom and bliss, Magali felt truly happy. A gleeful giggle echoed her feelings, “I still can't picture it, really. If I had a qanta for every customer I've wanted to backhand, you and I would be billionaires. To think that now I may actually have the chance!”

The freed felis shifted her weight accordingly, and that stupid smile stayed glued to her lips like a kitten at a birthday party. Magali bit back a fit of laughter at his comment about Atrix and she shook her head, “You could probably ask Mendez. You could definitely take him in a fight if he gets angry. But if she's like the Terskix and I had to take care of, she'd be just like everyone else, but with more arms...and fangs...and likes to lick cheeks saying 'just a taste...' I wonder if she licks him...” Magali peered past Nokra's head to see the stretcher flying past them, choosing not to comment on it. “Well, Fikri is a felis that isn't viewed as a pricy object? The pilot treats him as an employee and friend. I bet it's nice.”

After too short of a time, her feet were back on the ground and the pair of felis were standing before the gender divided cleaning facilities. Magali's ears went back and she looked to Nokra, nervous about this particular aspect of freedom. “Well, I don't know about you, but I don't know what these symbols mean. I can't read and was only ever cleaned by my owners. So...I won't say anything,” Magali said, her tail twitching as she reached for Nokra's hand and lead him into the room that obviously marked for males. [[screen fades to black, heh heh]]

> > > >

“Not a bad boy?” Rosalind asked, laughing, “No, ye ain't a bad guy but ye break the rules when et's right. So, si, you can keep wooin' me.” The pyra was wearing a look of seduction, eager to fully capitalize on their momentary chance alone. “Ye dun 'ave t'worry, love, I know ye ain't a bad person. An' I'll give the boys their books an' they can learn. Ah've high hopes for the new one. Seems quick as a whip, provided they choose ta stick around.”

Rosalind raised her eyebrows, biting her lip, “Oh, yer a temptin' one aren't ye? Well, pilot's on break now, but ah reckon' she's more than willin' t'get 'er hands dirty with a certain Edensian terrorist...” [[and again. Man, things not trying to kill them sure does light a fire doesn't it?]]

> > >

Ashi winced, once again shifting to try to get comfortable and once again regretting her decision. Sucking in a gasp, she laid back down in the original position, biting her lip to keep herself quiet. “I wonder what kind of name I should pick up? Obviously not something Daoweian...And now that I don't have...any...clothes to my name, looking less like a princess should be relatively simple. Just have to dress for comfort rather than beauty. I have to say, it's something I'm actually fairly excited for.” She mustered a smile, hoping to change the subject from Shaldag who both women were undoubtedly worried about. “Chastity is more simple than you'd think. All you have to do is have the media and paparazzi at your back every second aware of every single person you're talking to. That said, I can't imagine you as a nun in the slightest, though I'm guessing you'd pull off their little outfits quite well.” The subject got brought back to the Ogrunu however, and she breathed in deep through her nose, knowing that that possibility was all too likely. “I...I hope he wants to stay with us. I really like Shaldag...”

Involuntarily, her mind went back to when she was first picked up by the pair. She was so much more naive then, thinking that she would last even a moment on a planet that Terskix were native to. She'd been picked up, threatened, and borderline tortured by the man and her now present girlfriend. Was she a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome? Then, she remembered those tender moments when Shaldag had come to comfort her and gave her advice. In those moments, she realized she never had someone like that in her life, no one close enough to have anything close to that in the palace. All of those years in luxury, the softest blankets, the most comfortable pillows could never give her the warmth that they'd shown her since she was picked up. She'd seen so much, experienced so much in the short time she'd been with them. Even in her current situation, she wouldn't take it back.

The faint traces of a smile returned through a grimace, “Joke's on you; I'm not wearing panties.” It was a lame joke, Ashi knew, but she was glad that she still possessed some form of a sense of humor. “But, I think you're right. If I do use it, I need to plan and try to cause as few casualties as possible. There's a chance that exposing that I'm still alive would cause trading ties with neighboring planets would be called off. Possible alliances between Edensia and Daowei is another possible side effect, and that's only if they haven't already sided together.” Ashi wanted so bad to wrap her arms around herself, to curl up and feel some kind of warmth. She felt like a corpse laid out on a slab but stuck enduring the pain of life. Goosebumps speckled bare skin uncovered by dried blood, every hair standing on end from the cold by itself. She was told that it would be cold, but her nakedness only cemented that fact. She looked up at Hyun with the beginning of the compliment, her face paling toward the end, “I'll just be...ehm...thankful that you didn't do that...”

She'd been so enraptured in their conversation that when the door opened to reveal Dr. Analoka, Ashi jumped, immediately leaning her head back to fight off yet another pained expression. She watched as the doctor approach Hyun with a dataslate and wanted to lean over her shoulder to see what it was about, to see if there was news of their friend. She was never given the chance to even try before she was snatched up, the princess gasping audibly this time. “I...I-I understand,” she said through the gasps. She had to calm herself so she could hear what the doctor was saying. She gulped, listening. Even if he made it, those tender moments might have come to an end.

Tears formed in Ashi's eyes, and it wasn't from the pain, “What...what are you going to do?”

Funds. Of course she had forgotten that it would come to paying for medical care on other worlds. It was a slight that happened more often than she would admit it, if only because the Terskix would go to great lengths to avoid falling under the knife of someone that wasn't of her own species. Simply out of the paranoia that they would start probing in places they shouldn't for curiosity's sake. Her kind was not a well-known study. A small click of her pincers on her face and the Terskixian moved her hand slowly enough to not draw panic, and pulled out her own little sliver of a dataslate; the screen and Atrix's face lighting up red with sharp, jagged sigils - the language of her kind. "I can pay for myself. I don't need to use the crew's money." Atrix said tartly, the Terskix pursing her lips for a second and then offering the dataslate to the robot.

The machine reached out, stoic and unmoving as it plugged Atrix's dataslate into a socket; the robot pausing and buffering as it struggled to decrypt and then perform the transaction of quantas; finally letting out a small ping and ejecting the dataslate to hand it back to the multi-limbed woman. "Your patience is appreciated. You will be tended to in room 112. Enjoy your stay, and thank you for your patronage."

Rolling her eyes and blinking them individually, the Terskix plucked the stick of data and hid it away once more, her gaaze looking down the hall - the long stretch of room seeming to grow further and further, until the EXIT light at the very end seemed to have disappeared. Atrix shook her head and homed in on Mendez, the Spider sucking her teeth and hissing in her own language; the woman thinking outloud before addressing her beloved. "I hope they give me a human doctor." Was all she could think of spitting out of her mouth.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

[PURE AND NOT FOR THE FADES. But yeah pretty much.]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[I feel sorry for this ship's janitor. AKA Mags probably lmao]

><><><><><><><

"I mean you can call yourself anything now. I wouldn't recommend running around as 'Fuckface' or something like that. Mostly because I already know someone by that name, and it's the rest of this crew half of the fucking time." Hyun said with a tone drier than a desert, and a snort that almost turned into a squeak from one of her nasal slits; the woman frowning and itching a spot where a nose should have been. "Whoa hey whoa. Dress casual, but still look pretty. Gotta flaunt you to every so they know what they're missing." Hyun-chu added, snickering to herself and clasping her hands together in a mockery of prayer. "Sister Hyun sounds kinda catchy though. And I mean, nothing's more fun than tempting priests and such when you know they wanna plant their heads in some titties. Chastity is easy when you have the boundries though. Hakoo? People'll go at it in an alley the moment they feel an urge, and fuck everyone in their way. Sometimes literally in that regard." There was a small pause and the Chuzizian nodded in agreement with Ashi. "He wants to go though? Can't really stop him. I mean, I could blackmail him, but I don't think he'll take that kindly and roll his eyes like he normally would right now.

Finding a chair became the prime directive, and brushing her coat so the tails fell behind her, the magenta-colored woman chose a small rollable stool, and spun herself in a circle before planting her feet on the ground in a dead stop to face Ashi. Her mind was lost in calculation and for a moment, the Chuzizian took the Daoweian's words and dwelled on them for some time. Closing her eyes Hyun peeked and eye open and shrugged her shoulder. "Civilian casualties can be small, but expect them, definitely. First rule of even being a ganger, is that you're gonna have to get used to some innocent shit in the crossfire. Take that blue girl Fikri was trying to slide into, right? Shit happens," Hyun began, clicking her tongue and wriggling her fingers; her arms moving with each syllable while she began to her spiel, "Not that I don't care or anything. Look here though, the big thing to remember is, you come out and people are gonna take sides. You're gonna get people siding with your shitstain dad. You're gonna get some people you never thought would be on your side taking up arms for you. Only thing you got left to do is to just play the game. Can't make things better until you pop out and say 'Hello' to daddy again, right?"

Once Shaldag's decisions were presented to her, Hyun knew exactly what the man was doing, and the look of anger and frustration grew more and more on her face. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and it was a strong-armed attempt to just get what he wanted. Scrolling down the list of augments, Hyun narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks, pointing at one of the precribed treatments. "Doc. Half of this shit is military. I know that. Fine with all of this garbage being stuffed in him. Some of it's Ogrunu. And from what little I know of his language, I can make out one thing. Rage Nails. You're not being fucking serious, right? I know what the fuck those things do. You can't fucking tell me he's asking for those?"

Analoka didn't miss a bit in both addressing Hyun, and preparing the woman in the tub of verdaqua; the Fiery woman producing a small syringe that she set in her lap, along with a small kit of medical tool; arms diving into the green fluid to begin tending to the broken limbs first - A sense of numbing immediately following (Finally) as the medical fluid began to take effect. Hands grasped at bone and began to set there where they should have been. "Rage Nails. As a medical professional the sheer fact such a thing exists is unthinkable. But at the same time? They'll save his life too. And military-spec seems to be the only thing able to bear Ogrunu's natural strength and size. His permits are all set, so all the weaponry can be installed as well. Whatever happend to trigger your friend, someone should speak to him and counsel him when he is done. Provided you go through with the surgery."

Tears were in Ashi's eyes and the Chuzizian struggled to fight back her own, the woman snarling and hurling the pad against the wall. She didn't have a choice in the matter anymore when it came to Ashi's question. She did say no? She'd be losing her closest friend, and probably the respect of her girlfriend. It was unfair, and there had to have been a better solution.

If only she could think of one.

"...Fuck. Fuck me. I don't know. I don't want him dead...Urgh. Just do it before I change my fucking mind."

"My dataslate will be added to expenses, Ms. Hyun."

"...Fuck you, fine."

Mendez kept his hand firmly gripping one of those that wasn’t busy producing the dataslate, keeping his mouth shut. Atrix was a big girl, could handle her affairs, and technically didn’t need him. It was an aspect he loved and feared about her; on one hand he was wanted and he knew for a fact that she wasn’t using him, on the other she could tire of him and leave him (or worse) in the blink of one of her eight beautiful eyes. She was the gorgeous femme fatale that the film was really about – Mendez himself relegated to the role of the love interest he was all too eager to fill. “Why are you hoping for a human? Wouldn’t they be the least likely to understand your anatomy?” Mendez asked, then with a laugh added, “Well, save for me, that is.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze seeing a dizzy expression on her face, “Won’t be long until you’re fixed up and we’re outta here. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

>>>

Everyone having gone their own distinct ways, Fikri just sort of…left. The moment he realized he was alone he made the retreat to his new room. The room was foreign to him, all of his belongings boxed up in a corner. Resting on top of his own worldly belongings sat Vail’s old bag. He hadn’t looked through it yet, and not sure if he’d ever be able to, there it still sat. Taunting him. Reminding him that its owner would never come back to claim it. He stood in the doorway for a long moment, trying to decide what to do. He could just shove the bag under his bed and try to forget about it, unpack, begin redecorating. This new ship was his new home, after all. A happy giggle from Rosalind’s room told him he wasn’t alone on the ship and that whatever he chose, music should be a part of it. He pulled out his own dataslate to sync it to his new room and after a minute his door was sealed shut, his own sounds blocking out anything that might leak through from Rosalind’s.

He slid back against the door, sighing. He wanted to be productive. He could think of several things on the ship, or even in this room, that he could do. He could unpack or start on the basics for bomb making. Maybe paint. Or Draw. Maybe. But his chest felt like a boulder was lodged in it and he couldn’t bring himself to do so much as lift a finger. In all of his life he’d never felt so alone and now that he knew what it was like, knew what love was like, he wasn’t sure he could ever recover. That warm feeling that had run its course throughout his body from the tips of his ears through his tail was gone, and the path it traveled was more cold, more desolate, than ever before. He could feel the corner of the pyramid poking his leg through his pocket and it was this that he now fished for, twisting the top to feel what he once felt so organically.

It didn’t feel any different than it had the moment he realized he loved that woman that found her way onto the Odyssey not long ago – the pyramid only focused his mind on what he loved. The warm, fuzzy feeling was gone and the boulder got heavier. He closed his eyes waiting for the pyramid to work, to bring him that feeling of warmth, just wanting to see her face once more, to feel her hand in his. The warmth didn’t return. He was cold, so cold, even as she came into his visions once more. She wasn’t smiling as she usually was when she visited him in his dreams; rather, she was sitting on the bed across from him, head bowed, a tear tracing its way from the corner of her eye, down the bridge and off the tip of her nose, falling into her lap. She was speaking of her transgressions, destroying an entire planet off the sheer willpower of her race. She had baggage. Vail was never perfect. But neither was Fikri and he wanted her. He wanted her to know that he wouldn’t think less of her, that he would do anything in his power to see her happy, that he loved her.

Love wasn’t always warm and happy. Sometimes, it seemed, it was macabre. Sometimes it was empty and cold, only further reminding him of his solitude. Sometimes he didn’t want it and wished he’d never felt it at all. He gasped as she faded from his vision, longing filling him up and he choked back a sob, glancing down at the pyramid to make sure it was on the right setting.

It was.

Is this what was meant by love? This unrelenting feeling of torment? His tongue caught in his throat as he fumbled with the top of the pyramid, desperate to turn it off. As if that would do anything. Was this what it was to love someone? He’d always associated love with fulfillment. Ecstasy. But all he could focus on, with and without the pyramid it seemed, was the emptiness.

>>>>

Ashi repressed a snort, “While I don’t think that’s what I’d choose, I’ve never really thought of what I’d make my name if I had to change it. I guess I always thought I’d just be…well, the role I was born into.” Ashi was careful about the language she used in case the doctor came in. She’d been one of the ones with no id, and thankfully she’d been accepted with no fuss, but had anyone known and cared to speak up, the consequences could be dire. “I’d start calling you Sister Hyun but I imagine that will get awkward in certain situations.” Those certain situations were only mere speculation at this juncture, as Ashi was as pure as they come and her attempt at the humor wasn’t likely fooling anyone. “I guess only the uncertainties are certain at this point, aren’t they?”

Ashi found a spot on the ceiling to look at while she waited for the treatment to begin when she gave the okay, “Doctor, I think I’m ready. I’m as comfortable as I possibly can be.”

Every single second that passed seem to take ages as the hand on the clock inched and crept forward. Almost as slowly as Shaldag would have been able to move his limbs detached. The Ogrunu was glad most of his party was cybernetic for now. At least no extremity had that weird sensation that needed to be touched. Scratched. Itchiness? Was that what it was called? It had been a long time since he needed to do such a thing, and the Ogrunu let out a small, agitated sigh. It was yet another time his life and the continuation of his being was being discussed and decided by the Chuzizian who remained to have been seen since they were in the ship and managed to get to this hospital. She had the money after all. Come to think of it, Shaldag could barely remember a time he wasn't clawing at Hyun's purse and accounts, and bought something of his own accord without asking.

"That's because she owns you. She put every single bit of machinery in your body. And now you want her to say 'Yes' to putting in more."

Shaldag flinched at his own internal thoughts, that dark, hissing voice making him flare his nostrils and bite down on his tongue with plastic teeth; the Ogrunu easing up on his chomp and weighing in on his own thoughts. It was true. Against his own spiritual volition he had replaced a lot of his organic pieces with metal. Something akin to being Halal to his species. The moment the rest of his kind had seen them with even just one of his arms gone he had been ostracized. He lost his place in his own clan, and with that? Had no other choice but to continue being a thrall in Hyun's pocket. But he had done as much good with it as he had done...Shaldag couldn't say evil. Evil was murdering innocent girls made of fire. Girls who didn't even know the scale of the actions her friends had took, and let her pay the price for it.

"And watch. Hyun's not gonna care in the slightest about your best friend. Toka got geeked by Edensians. Simply because Hyun shooed her away from you all so she could get sweet with Ashi and get her slit licked by the stupid Daoweian."

The silence in the room was monumental, and Shaldag couldn't give himself a rebuttal for such an act. There was lust all over Hyun's eyes when it came to Ashi. There wasn't even a chance for anyone else to have gotten a chance to at least swoon over her. Not that he would of course. Shaldag? He couldn't remember the last time he had managed to eke out something akin to fancying another woman. Maybe it was just his own tastes. Shaldag had been picky something fierce with keeping around any sort of potential mate. But the facts had come full circle. Hyun was always fine with Toka pestering them all nonstop. Why had this been the one time she was kicked away?

"Maybe Hyun did it on purpose. Either way. You know what you gotta do. They want you to be a machine? Kill things with metallic claws and no remorse? That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna let them remember what the word 'Shaldag' means in your native tongue..."

<><><><><><>

Analoka did her best to focus on her patient, among the magenta woman's tirade of anger. The Chuzizian was clearly too much of an emotional wreck with the current situation, and maybe she could at least get her to be a bit more amicable once Ashi herself was back to at least 90%. The hostility was met with a small shrug from the doctor, who worked as diligently as she could and hummed - the sight of broken bone and haggard meat a secondhand thought. She had seen enough war wounds in her career to not blink (Not that she could of course.) And the blue-haired girl seemed more than keen on being able to walk again.

There was no sensation of pain, but the Daoweian would feel her fingers as she probed around and set everything back to where it was - Once things had been set the Verdaqua seemed to work like a modern miracle of science. Bone fused together, then proceeded to heal like normal. One could probably watch as the regenerative process took hold, though Analoka had no time to really watch in her own amazement.

"The first time I used a tub like this, I thought it was a joke. Verdaqua is a marvelous chemical, is it not?" She chattered out loud, trying to at least shift the grim notion of their other friend into something a little more manageable. Analoka could mend bones and suture wounds. She couldn't ease troubled minds. Not the kind they had.

<><><><><><>

"Humans don't live near my kind. I don't have to worry about a human doctor trying to kill me while I'm sitting in there. Vulnerable. Distracted. That's how the other Terskixian medics have worked in the past. They would take a few bites out of you if you weren't in good terms." Atrix said bitterly, clenching her fingers and releasing them before she crossed her lower set of limbs. Her look towards Mendez was one with growing anxiety, and finally the hall ended with her room in front of her; the Terskix squeezing his hand with much more force than she had wanted - Atrix pulling back like she had placed her finger on something hot. "...I didn't break your hand did I? Coming here was a mistake. We should just leave. I'll let it heal on its own."

Leaning his head back, Fikri focused on a spot on the ceiling, catatonic and unable to move. No, “focused” is wrong. His eyes fell on that spot and that was where they stopped. His vision blurred and he wanted to cry, to scream, to...something. He'd come out of slavery, made friends, became part of a family, but for what? It all culminated into naught but his solitude.

What did I do to deserve this? Why her? I would have taken those spikes for her, for Riola, in the blink of an eye. Why couldn't it have been me? Why...did I...have to taste it...

To think that there was once a time when that was all he wanted. But now that he'd had that taste...that glorious taste of what it meant to love...the solitude was anything but wanted. His body stopped listening to his mental commands in the most uncomfortable position, head resting against the hard wall. If he could just make his way to the bed, he could sleep and forget about himself for a little bit.

As if it could call, he looked back down at the pyramid, now on the ground and turned off. It wasn't far from where he sat; he could feel its smooth surface against the side of his hand and soon he grasped it in his hand, flipping the top to the setting “joy.” The beginnings of the shift in feelings were immediate. The boulder in his chest faded and he could get up. Further, he wanted to get up. He felt like a kitten again! He felt like he was flying! But why? There was nothing making him feel this way, and the question of why, why, why, still beat like a drum in the back of his head, but he could feel his tail twitching with ecstasy. He could do anything now.

Getting to his feet and stretching, he let the tips of his fingers touching the ceiling to his room and looked to the boxes. He'd get it unpacked. He was happy! He had no reason to be happy, but he was!

<<<

Ashi lay as still as she could attempting to make Dr. Analoka's job as easy as possible – especially considering her girlfriend's mental state. The tub that she was laying in began to fill up, and Ashi gasped at how much colder it was than the air that she previously was freezing in. Soon her entire body went numb, the pain diminished and she could feel fingers prying at her body, but that was it. She could see her naked body distorted through the viscous liquid, Analoka's hands moving deftly over the more injured areas, snapping things back in place. The horrendous pain that she'd imagine was noticeably and thankfully absent. Ashi, despite her better judgment, watched the entire process as it was happening.

“It truly is,” Ashi breathed, not taking her eyes off of the hands that were working on fixing her. She cleared her throat, her bodily troubles being mended, she had other problems to attend to. “Um, doctor? Once I'm mended...when can we...see Shaldag?”

>>>>

Mendez nodded his understanding. “They're probably too scared to try hurting you,” he laughed, trying to comfort her with his incredibly lame sense of humor. He could see how nervous she was about actually needing to be fixed herself, a concept that he found rather unnerving. He'd never seen Atrix nervous before. She wasn't nervous when they'd first kissed or made love. She wasn't nervous when meeting anyone new. She certainly wasn't nervous at the idea of brandishing weapons and killing another living being. But here? She was nervous.

When she squeezed his hand, his eyes widened for just a moment but soon he was laughing again, massaging his hand for just a moment, “You've done worse to me in the bedroom. Don't worry, querida, you're fine.” Satisfied with finding none of his bones had been broken, he went to grab her hand again, placing his other on the small of her back guiding her to room 112. “No, no, mamacita. We're making sure you're not in pain. Don't worry, I've got you. If they try anything funny, I'll kill them and you'll have a nice snack for later, si?”

The mention of Shaldag at the moment fromAshi turned the Chuzizian's face into something akin to the alien being met with a carton of rotten milk; the look of someone who had smelled something spoiled washing over her magenta features. Hyun cast a long and tired look towards the two and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and loudly before a hand reached into her coat to fumble for something, the magenta colored woman flaring her nasal slits and moving towards the exit, giving both her girlfriend and the doctor a small wave with two fingers. "Nicotine addictions. I'll be back. Mostly because I need to decide if I'm gonna tell Shaldag I'm sorry, or let him know he's a fuckin' idiot." Hyun growled, taking no time to wait for a response from either of the two.

Analoka made no offer of departure as Hyun-chu vacated the room; the doors behind her closing and then letting out a small 'Ping' to let the fiery woman know she was with her patient and her patient alone, the Doctor's hands slowing down a bit and then stopping as she pulled them from the Verdaqua, only to bend them and wriggle them. "I'm just checking to make sure there's no leaks in my gloves. Contrary to belief, beings such as me feel. And I can assure you that you don't want my hands to go numb while I mend your leg." Analoka chimed, turning her head in the direction - the brand along her face churning and contorting into a faint semblance of a smile. "Mending shouldn't take too-too long. Your leg is taking well to the treatment. Any internal injuries are probably being treated as the liquid starts to seep through your hypodermal tissue. As for seeing Shaldag, should he allow you all in there you can visit him. You can probably stay in there to watch his augmentation, if you don't mind the extensiveness of what he plans to do to himself."

Utter a short, tart cough the doctor shook her head and set back to work placing tissue, tendon and bone where it belonged. "I will probably only have you escorted out when it comes to time implant the Rage Nails. A surgery like that, and their initial bootng process in the body? It's not something you wish your friends to witness." Taking a small pause, the doctor shifted her attention to Ashi and looked to the door, and then back to the blue-haired woman, repeating the motion a few times. "May I ask you something? It's going to come as a shock, but I knowwho you are. Your name and your photo have been plastered on some of the News Networks. Missing princess. People are in arms determining if you're dead or not. I assumed the latter. Please correct me if I am wrong however."

>>>>>>>>

Atrix puffed her cheeks as hard as she could and narrowed her eyes at Mendez. He was right. They were probably scared of her. And they should be; Was she not one of the higher, superior specimens of her already formidable species? "I don't see why they are. I'm...More terrified of doctors than I am staring death in the face on a war front." Atrix replied, her voice bitter, resentful. Violence and punching and kicking her way out was looking more and more like a valid means of escape; the Terskix reaching towards where she normally kept some form of weapon, only to find the area barren. Another sigh escaped her and she clicked her mandibles in rapid succession - The spider fighting back an urge to clamp down with her teeth onto the poor Halfbreed just trying to make things better.

A hand on her lower back was the final push and Atrix froze once she was in Room 112; the Terskix staring and going pale at the sights of various instruments along the tableside and hanging from the wall; though she mustered the courage to move to the bed and against her better judgment, sat down to wait for the inevitable atrocity that was medical care - Half pulling Mendez by his arm with her and squeezing as hard as she could. "The difference in me doing worse things is that you enjoy them. I do not enjoy this." Atrix shot back, her squeezing amplifying by the second and several more limbs reached out for the Edensian. "If something goes wrong. I'm eating you both. The doctor for doing it, and you for not seeing it coming to stop it in the first place."

Ashi noticed Hyun's facial change and immediately regretted her question. She didn't express this regret out loud, however, opting instead to close her eyes for a moment, reveling in the miraculous lack of pain she was feeling at the moment. She opened her eyes in time to see her girlfriend inching toward the door and the princess couldn't help but understand. There was a lot on Hyun's mind and the problem of Ashi was now being taken care of. There were other issues that needed attending and dwelling on. The very fact that Hyun considered apologizing to Shaldag was a feat in and of itself. Ashi opened her mouth to wish Hyun a happy nic break but closed it again seeing that she was already gone. A small sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes once more, now content that she could see if she wanted to without being squeamish.

Analoka, as expected, said nothing when Hyun left the room – a fact that Ashi was grateful for. The conversation moved to simple procedures and Ashi opened one eye to see what Dr. Analoka was doing in reference to her words. “Do what you need to, Doctor. I'm more bound to believe you about the effect you have than my own preconceived notions,” Ashi said chuckling a bit, “I'm thankful to hear that I'm responding well.” The verdaqua was indeed working. Ashi could feel it, even if it had changed color from all of the blood. “Is he...conscious?” Ashi blurted, again immediately regretting the question. Of course he was conscious. He'd asked Hyun for the upgrades. “Did he...did he look for us? Is he sad that we're not there for him?” The questions tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them, worry consuming her. She could only imagine how Hyun was feeling right now. “I'm...sorry, I- I...it's just...I feel responsible and I'm...worried about him. I heard the side effects of the procedure he asked for and I want him to know that I'm here for him no matter what...” Ashi bowed her head, biting her lip, biting off the urge to ask more questions she knew she didn't want the answer to.

The princess didn't react as tissue, tendon, and bone were moved to their proper locations. Instead she remained perfectly still, no longer closing her eyes in a vain attempt to relax. Now her eyes sought a spot on the ceiling and let them rest there. Ashi wasn't given a chance to answer whether or not she was okay with a question and when the question came her eyes widened, freezing and slowly moving down to Analoka. She'd been hoping that given the isolation of the medicinal planet that she'd managed to evade recognition. The rest of the medical staff seemed more concerned with Atrix's appearance – a fact that Ashi was eternally grateful for, even if it was at the spider-woman's expense. She gulped and chose her words carefully. There was no backpedaling now, and she knew it, but she didn't know what it meant. “Well,” she said, pausing to think over her words, “I'm not dead, no. But as far as my father is concerned, I am. I do not know how closely you've been following the News Networks, but my funeral was recently held. It was grandiose and disgusting. Kind of amazing, really. The man is capable of pretending to feel things when a camera is aimed at him.” She did not say that her father was still searching for her, or that she, Hyun, and Shaldag had tricked him into surrendering billions of qanta to the trio or that she was considering revealing her life to the general public thus creating a possibility to incite war or worse...trade cut offs. All of this was best unsaid and would remain so until Ashi new what the fuck she was planning.

>>>>

Mendez took her narrowed eyes and turned them into a cheeky grin, “C'mon mamacita, I'll be there the entire time. If they try to do anything, they have to answer to me. And trust me, I inherited my temper from mi madre, and she didn't fuck around.” His grin only wavered for a couple of grimaces every time she tightened her grip, but several nights of several hour-long sessions hardened him to the point that he didn't try to remove any of her grabbing appendages. As far as he was concerned, if his body could provide even the smallest amount of comfort, he would allow it to happen. “I understand the fear. I've got my own set of fears. Being eaten, for instance. There's no shame in being afraid,” he said, giving her the gentlest of squeezes back.

Mendez could almost taste her fear, and it didn't taste as good as one would have expected from one who was used to being on top. On the contrary, it just made Mendez want to hold Atrix all the tighter, tell her all the more that he was there, that they couldn't touch her in a way she didn't want them to while he was there. “That's fine, Atrix,” Mendez said chuckling, looking up to see her face. “Hey. Do you remember when we first met? You were dangling me by one leg and asking me to give you one reason to not eat me right then and right there. You remember what I did? I fuckin' punched you! The most beautiful woman I've ever seen! Now that we're well beyond that...Imagine how hard I'd punch someone who dared threaten that most beautiful woman. It's okay, I'm here, so it'll be okay, okay?”

"Pre-concieved notions are a viable source of information half the time to begin with. Without them, people would probably make a lot of physical passes on my being, and then cry out in horror when they get burned," Analoka said, half as an observational fact, and the other half nothing more than a bit of humor escaping the otherwise stoic practioner, "You can stare at me as well. A lot people are wanton in their expression when it comes to something much more akin to abnormal to them. I suppose where you are from, you don't see many plasmic-carbon based life, correct? I was the same way seeing most of the humanoids when I ventured out into the world too. I couldn't believe that you all could be so weird. Half solid. Half liquid. Gelatinous viscera in between everywhere. I wanted to dissect all of you and see how you tick, then I decided to go into medicine when I realized I could make a living doing that." Analoka hummed and cocked her head to the side, looking at how much the blood in the tub had turned the precious liquid into a sickly, bilious tea color. Her work was started to be obscured, but at this point it was only a matter of time before the Daoweian was back to her normal self. "Your Ogrunu friend? He seemed more content on keeping himself as the pinnacle of statuesque. Didn't ask for anyone or anything. Refused several attempts to get him under anasthesia. He was coerced into painkillers at least, and we managed to get a temporary replacement jaw in his mouth, so he can talk. I supposed his glances to the side could have been him looking for you two. I don't want to dash your hopes, but I would assume not, personally."

Analoka's hands emerged from the tub of liquid, and pulling gloves off the woman let plumes of plasma trail up and flare before they calmed down, the doctor going silent in thought. "He wounds are definitely something I could see from a combat medic's perspective. I'm sure he did that because he cared about you, and it was his job. You do not need to feel responsible. If anything, you allowed him a chance to prove he can laugh death in the face. A trait that his species enjoys very much." The gaze of dread from Ashi put the doctor on edge, however, and the woman's flames dimmed to a tiny, dull flicker as she leaned back in her seat; Analoka listening to the response and offering a sage nod in return. "Ashamedly, I simply glanced at the headlines, looked at your face and then proceeded to scroll through my dataslate. I can't see your father, the king of the planet being so...Atrocious as you are claiming him to be. However I don't know him as well as his 'deceased' daughter." Looking towards the princess, the brand on Analoka's face formed into a small grin as she shook her head. "It's a shame. I was going to have to report you being alive. It is such a shame that instead I just found a lookalike in the midst of commotion. If you are catching the meaning behind my words."

Analoka arched her back and wriggled in place; the doctor adjusting a few unflattering bits of bodysuit where her inner fire had produced what looked like the humanoid equivalent of bloatedness in her form before she looked at Ashi and clasped her hands together. "Bend your knee. Work it a little. There will be some discomfort. If you have a sudden excruciating pain, and need to scream, please do so I know I have to open your leg back up and look for a piece of bone I may have misplaced."

>>>>>>>>

"If you fight as well as you can calm, I'm going to be on a vivisection table rather quickly then." Atrix hissed - Tartness in her voice creeping out against her will as she frowned and wrinkled her features, her grip loosening when she finally noticed Mendez's discomfort with her rather harsh handling of his being. "I don't see why you fear being eaten. I would do you the nicetie of killing you quickly and painlessly. No need for stress to tighten what little meat you have on your bones." This time the Terskix sounded a little more facetious than malicious, and she gave him one last squeeze of her hand. "There is a lot of shame in being afraid. You don't win a fight or a war when you're terrified. Many things under our boot learned that the hard way."

The clock ticked ever so slowly, and each millisecond was like an hour as Atrix waited in the room with Mendez; eyes continuing to peer around as the spidery woman awaited for her incoming doom - The vulnerability was the hardest part to swallow and while she knew Mendez was only human, and trying to help, each laughed sounded condescending rather than him trying to use light jests and nonchalance to calm her down. A ping of irritation made her eye twitch, though the Terskix resorted to slow breaths. "...It's appreciated that you'd at least fight someone for me. I didn't think you would punch me. I was half-expecting to be tossing you into some sort of fire for consumption. I'm glad you hit me. Because you're shaping to be an...Acceptable mate. I suppose that is the best words I can give you. There's no word for 'Love' in Terskixian."

Ashi couldn't help but let a small smile begin to form at the corners of her lips. It was only when she was alone with the doctor that she realized how tense she'd been the past few days. The doctor prattled on with small talk, interesting small talk no less, her concerns nowhere near the same areas that Ashi's own her. Shaldag, Toka, Vail...all of those faces formed her primary concerned, and for two it was already too late. Hell, it might even be too late for Shaldag, at least to be as he was when he first approached her in her room in her first days with the Odyssey clan. He'd saved her then, though he probably didn't realize it. Even if she hadn't been fully contemplating taking her own life, she'd been on the edge of a mental break, and it was Shaldag who prevented her from taking that leap. Until now, those concerns were in the foreground, not to mention the excruciating pain she'd been in. Here, with the doctor, conversation turned to her area of study. The princess looked sheepishly up at Dr. Analoka. “You're correct about that,” she said, nodding, “But you're not the first.” The threat of a smile never left the princess's face, but her eyes saddened for just a moment, the image of a little cowboy hat, boots, beside a puddle of plasmic sludge momentarily bubbling up to the surface. She shook the thought away, grinning, “Though, I'm glad this is how you chose to channel your curiosity rather than...well, other alternatives. It does seem like you took to your field of study well.” She paused briefly, wondering what Shaldag would want before resolving to go in to see him as soon as she was well again. “No hopes dashed,” she said, after a moment, “If he's conscious, I will just ask what he prefers...”

Ashi fell silent with the doctor, watching the plume and grateful for the flash of warmth across her face. She was no longer in pain, but the cold was enough to prove uncomfortable. “If...if that much is true, then I'll be grateful for my hand in reminding him how strong he is – something anyone with anatomy that allows them to see can witness.” She swallowed, shifting slightly and being pleasantly surprised that a jolt of pain didn't race up her leg. “There's nothing to be ashamed of, doctor. None. I always questioned the purpose of the media following me around as if I was permitted to make decisions or have any sway on Daoweian politics whatever. Can you believe that I have a fan club?” The question was more one of incredulousness than boasting, a fact reflected by her shaking her head. “That said, there is a lot that happened within the palace that the media could never get a hold of, even local to our moon. Still more that happens moonside that allies and trading partners are never allowed to discover. My leaving was quite intentional, and if 'daddy' wants to spread that I am dead, it will simply make my escape that much easier.” Her nod here was resolute and she was resisting the urge to stand, already feeling mended.

The relief Ashi felt was palpable, that tense feeling in her shoulders melting away. “Thank you,” she whispered, wanting to hug the doctor and remembering an earlier part of their conversation in one instant. “I don't know how I can ever repay you...” One start would be to do as the doctor asked, which she proceeded to do, bending one knee first, followed by the other. There was no sudden pains, rather the feeling was closer to that of getting to one's feet after sitting on her knees for quite some time. “It feels...better. Truly miraculous. Thank you, doctor.”

>>>>

Mendez shaped one of his hands to a makeshift mouth, mimicking Atrix complete with his tongue sticking out, “I'm not that bad. Maybe not female Terskix strong, but I can definitely kick another human's ass, and maybe even male Terskix. You're not going to end up on a vivisection table. Won't let it happen.” His contorted features returned to normal and he was grateful for the slightly reduced grip. “Sounds like I wouldn't be worth it anyway. How many of your mates have been willing to cook for you? Shit, I'll even kill for you once I find someone I can kill with relatively little consequence. Those Edensians that took Vail and tried to take Riola? Esa, I will bring you home twenty. You'll be so sick of cheek meat by the end of this,” Mendez said, grinning, attempting to take her mind to somewhere out of the doctor's office. “And as far as fear goes? I just look at it as a motivator. The hardest I fight is when I'm afraid, and I'm not the only one. It's just a matter of how an individual channels it.”

He shrugged innocently, blissfully unaware of the effect of his “encouragement”. With the last bit of dialogue from Atrix, Mendez raised his eyebrows, looking up at her. He could feel his heartbeat quicken and without thinking gave one her hands an extra little squeeze, “Well, there is Galactic Common, and I know what it feels like. So, I'll go ahead and say it. I love you, Atrix.”

The 'X' in Atrix's name had barely passed through Mendez's lips when the door hissed open, a bear of a man appearing in the frame. The man was large, but in the universal white of a doctor, and he bore in one arm a clipboard, presumably with the information that Atrix had given the bot at the front desk. “ I take it you're Atrix?” he asked, looking at the Terskix in question. “It says here that there's a crack in your chitin. I'm glad you came to see me. It's easily fixed, and I know your species' hatred of doctors. So, we're going to make this as quick as possible, alright?” the doctor looked tiredly over at Mendez, “This a lay or a snack? Does he need looking at too?” The doctor seemed hardly phased by treating a Terskix, acting more dismayed at Mendez's presence than anything.

Analoka chimed and a small plume of flame licked the air as she shot her head towards Ashi. "Well, I would have never guessed you would see more than one of my kind. We are a rarity that seems to be growing smaller each passing day. I'm waiting to hear the news from the home-sun that we're all going to be no more." There was a forlorn sense of acceptance in Analoka's voice when she said that and the woman paused in her medical motions; Dwelling on internal thoughts for far too long, the doctor took the reins on the more light-hearted conversation at hand, and snickered right back towards the Daoweian. "Don't give me too much credit. If I wasn't going to pass with the official medical exams, or if I lose my status as a doctor, I do not have any regrets going into far less....Legal....Means of working and peering into your bodies for inspection." A small pause. "Be prepared for whatever may come then. I don't know him, but if he's like other Ogrunu, he'll best testy considering he is so vulnerable now."

"I wouldn't be surprised that you have a fan club. I'm sure a good portion of them are probably suitors and men who have yet to leave the basements of their collective parents' homes, while they fantasize about you incessantly." Analoka replied dryly, letting out an indignant sigh and rolling her shoulders before she snapped her finger and crossed her legs n her chair. "If you're looking to make an impact, you should consider those secrets being exposed. If you can handle the consequences, and know they won't damage your people too harshly."

With the woman's wounds mended; Analoka pushed herself from her seat and offered a hand out for the blue-haired girl to take if she needed any sort of help acclimating to being back on two limbs once more. There were scrubs in the drawers that the Daoweian could take, and Analoka made sure to at least nod in the direction of the clothing while she used her free hand to cover and censor Ashi's more intimate bits. "Once you're clothed and such, knock on the door to your right. I'll be in there attending to your friend. I'll let him know you're on the way as well. Or the door will remained locked in which case, you'll know he's not receiving visitors."

><><><><><

There was look of offense on Atrix's face when Mendez made the mockery of her mandibles with his hand, and she moved her back back slightly; the mocked pincers clicking several times before she shook her head and rolled each eye consecutively. "I'll have to fight you myself for fun at some point. See if you can hold your own for making fun of my face." She said, petulance flowing out of her mouth as easily as the words she was spewing. "My other mates cooked for me. Mostly because they were afraid of being on the menu. I guess food is the way to my heart, and not to end up in my stomach I would suppose." Her voice grew more calmed as she continued to listen and let Mendez's words flatter her into an ounce of calmness.
'I love you.' The words sunk into Atrix's mind and time seemed to stop as she looked at Mendez and began the effort of trying to really process those words. It was something she wasn't used to hearing in the slightest, nor had she had ever been graced with before. True to her kind the Terskix had simply had the mates and romances of her kind: Utilitarian and intending to just serve the Empire in attempting to produce more Terskix to feed into the Empire's War and Economic cogs, and keep those gears turning in blood. Atrix had opened her mouth to respond before it slammed shut when the sound of an intruder entered the room.

The human was large. Bigger than Mendez and Atrix sat up straight; mandibles preening and digging into her skin - each movement leaving a little trail of lightly scratched skin as the Terskix locked her eyes on the man. Muscles tensed and her lower limbs collected into matching sets of fists that slowly released. Flaring her nose the Spidery woman let the man dwell in an uncomfortable silence; choosing to speak when she realized the faster she talked, the faster the doctor would talk and be out of her way. "Atrix, yes. And cracked chitin. It hasn't mended in several days. It normally does. It doesn't hurt, and it's not oozing." She half-growled, nodding her head towards Mendez and flashing her teeth. "Mate. Not a 'lay' or a snack. Look at him too. I want to make sure he didn't accumulate too much wear and tear between jumps to other worlds."

Dr. Analoka was beautiful. There was no denying that. The way her skin shone (if one could call it 'skin') lighting the room Ashi felt like she was gazing upon some mystical creature of Daoweian fairytales. Instead, she proved to be another personification of a potentially good friend lost, forever. Flame shot up, warming Ashi's cheeks and it was hard for Ashi to tear her eyes away from her, though at this point she wasn't sure if it because of recent memories squelched or her shimmering body, safely tucked away in protective gloves.The princess swallowed some spit that had gathered at the back of her throat and looked down, “You will be saddened to know, then, that she is no longer with us. She was killed like so many of us back on Hazoo. She...was alone. If we would have known... she would have been with us...” Her breath shook as she inhaled and exhaled, “I suppose I should be grateful you passed then. You seem to be working magic on my own body. I have done all the mental preparing I'm capable of. I'll...I'll handle what he throws at me. I have in the recent past and I will again.”

Ashi scoffed rolling her eyes, a small smile creeping across her lips, “I couldn't have pegged them better if I tried. They're the same type regardless of which planet they come from.” She stopped for a moment, mind still stuck in the previous conversation. It was hard not to think of Toka when one of her rare species was sitting right in front of her, alive and well when Toka, the purest of all, lay in ash. Her mind was brought back immediately with Analoka's echoing of her own thoughts throughout the past few days when she was wracked with pain. “I've...I've been thinking about it. But,” she sighed, “I don't know what to say. I'm, ah, aware of potential consequences if I go about this wrong – or even if I go about it right. There will be blood on my hands, and I'm not sure I am ready for that.” There was already blood on Ashi's hands, blood of one she loved, but that was a secret that only she and her father knew, and neither would dare breathe a word to anyone on that subject for different reasons. This, was if one discounted the guilt she already felt for Toka.

The princess took Analoka's outstretched hand gratefully, wobbling on her newly fixed legs, half amazed that pain didn't shoot through her body. She noticed Analoka's hand placement and offered one of those smiles that came so freely to her face as a side effect of always being watched. “I'll help with that,” she said, turning invisible and stepping out of the tub. Analoka could see exactly where she was without seeing the actual body of the princess, pink tinged verdaqua fluid dripped from her body forming a small puddle where she stood. Following Analoka's gesture, she made her way to the drawer with scrubs, glancing up as Analoka left the room, leaving her alone. It had been so long since she'd been alone, the silence was almost deafening.

As she slid into her new scrubs, turning visible to examine her appendages, feeling like new. The verdaqua was already beginning to dry forming pink-tinged scales that fell off with a touch. After peeling one of the scales off, she made her way to the door, placing a hand on the wall for stability. It had only been two galactic days since she'd been injured, since the massacre at Hazoo, but it felt like a millenia since she could walk. Now, she was pain free and in desperate need of a bath.

Out in the hall, she could see the door that Dr. Analoka had spoken of and she was faced with the choice of a shower or seeing her friend. Given the circumstances, she knew that he wouldn't be bothered if she showed up as she was – if he was seeing anyone. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Mendez clamped his mouth shut as the large frame of the doctor appeared in the doorway. He wasn't a small man by any means, but the doctor seemed to dwarf him. The man in the labcoat had the appearance of one who was nearing the end of a very long shift, though Mendez wondered how busy he could have possibly been judging by the empty hallways. True to his word, he was on edge and watching the man intently. It wasn't that the man scared him, more than the actual size of the man. Did they choose him specifically because he was intimidating? One who could potentially restrain a Terskix? He watched as the man glanced down at his dataslate and tapped the surface a couple of times and then back up at Atrix, “Those are all very good signs, when was your last molt? It sounds like you may be getting close. Of course it's best to fix cracked chitin if it doesn't heal so that there are no complications during the molting process...” He turned to a counter that Mendez hadn't noticed before and grabbed two different bottles. As if sensing the tension in the room, he sighed, “They didn't choose me because of my size. They chose me because Terskix don't threaten me. The ones that come in need to be fixed and they don't attack if you're giving them something that they want or need. My specialty is arthropopoda, or humanoids closely related to arthropod species. Etymologically, I find the word redundant as it's an unclever combination of 'arthro' and 'anthropo,' but I didn't write the language. In short, I'm not going to hurt you, and chitin cracks are a pretty routine issue that I deal with. You're in good hands. That said, I can give your mate a physical, but that is all I am authorized to do for him given my training.”

Mendez breathed. A specialist. Terskix probably got a specialist for all their needs given their unique anatomy. The man's size had nothing to do with his specialty. The job was chosen. He did wonder briefly as to why, but then, the doctor could ask him the same thing being a willing mate to one. “Now,” the doctor said interrupting Mendez's reverie, “your last molt will determine which cream I use; both work essentially the same way, but one is more permanent in case you feel your molt is still a significant way away, the second is more temporary and will supplement certain minerals that will aid in the shedding and hardening process during your next molt. It's up to you which I apply.”

Analoka's flames began to diminish and wither away to a small candle-like plume on the verge of extinguishing. The plasma-based woman looked down towards the ground and clasped her hands together - Analoka offering a small prayer in the rather flowing and delicate tongue of her people before she lifted her head back to address Ashi, the woman clasping the woman's hands and nodding slowly. "May she have found her essence back to the light of our sun, then. All you can do now is remember her fondly. Someone who is never forgotten lives forever." The Doctor leaned back and mimicking the motion of stretching her back. "So long as it was me patching you together, and not some of the other physicians here. Some of them are so specialized that human anatomy is rather alien. We've had an incident of a Felis waking up with parts attached that were certainly not felinoid in appearance whatsoever." Towards the mention of being able to handle Shaldag, Analoka shrugged. "Should he try and bite you we can at least patch that up." She said, a dry chuckle escaping her lips.

"You don't lead a revolution without spilling a little blood. I can assure you of that. As for what to say? Simply strike at where a king is most readily to get angry and vulnerable. I'm sure you know enough to wound his pride." Analoka said with a small shrug. The nuances of actual politics for Daowei? Analoka couldn't even hazard a guess. She had always found the bickering between worlds rather confusing, and sometimes just unnecessary. They had near infinite resources with space travel. Couldn't they just make things easier to deal with and sort things out properly without the need for violence and intrigue?

"invisibility. A rare trait in a species. If you wouldn't mind I would like to procure samples of what I assume is pure Daoweian DNA. Technical applications of your camouflage-esque tissue would be an interesting thing to work with." A fiery gaze did its best to try and keep a track on the spatterings of verdaqua that were dripping to note where her patient was before the woman left Ashi to her devices.

It was a few moments of seeing her more critical client before Analoka heard the knock on the door; the woman looking towards Shaldag, who slowly nodded and muttered a small 'Yes' to let whoever wanted come in, Analoka moving to the door and unlocking it; the door sliding open with a small whirr. "Ah. Ashi. Come in. Sit down. You'll be happy to know Shaldag was accepting of you."

The Ogrunu's only eye slowly trailed towards the blue-haired girl, before it moved back towards scanning the ceiling; Bloodrate spiking for a second before coming back down.

"You're alive. Good."

<><><><><><><><>

A doctor that specialized in caring for her kind. That was an interesting turn; and Atrix cocked her head slightly; the woman blinking her eyes rapidly and pursing her lips tightly. It was the comment of her kind not threatening him that made her more intrigued than offended. Perhaps it was rather simple thinking, but his size must have had to do something with it. Mostly because she was sure for a second he could have been related to the blue-haired girl's mechanical friend. "You should be threatened." Atrix finally mused outloud, puffing herself up slightly, before exhaling and shaking her head. She was the apex predator in this room. The pinnacle of the galaxy's darwinianism to produce the strongest and best between worlds. To stymie her own aggression, Atrix instead did her best to focus on the questions she was asked. "Molt? I molted a week before I met Mendez. I shouldn't have to do so again for roughly a month and a half." The doctor was wellspoken, and some of the words he said made Atrix squint before she understood them, but when he agreed to tending to Mendez; Atrix seemed more than willing to submit to being at the mercy of the doctor.

"As I said. My molt will be rather far away for now. Barring any complications. I had a problem three years ago. One of my lower arms didn't...Molt properly. It was deformed for a year or two before it was fixed." She said with a small shrug of her shoulders - The Terskix crossing her legs as the entire set of eyes on her left side focused themselves on the sets of cream that the doctor was going to apply. "If any of them are going to sting, I will give you both a small warning. I don't deal with irritation well. I will lash out."